


the kingdom of dirt

by juniorstarcatcher



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Armitage Hux Has Issues, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Brothels, F/M, Glove Kink, Rose Tico Deserved Better, Sex Work, The First Order Sucks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:29:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22408717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juniorstarcatcher/pseuds/juniorstarcatcher
Summary: General Armitage Hux didn’t just want her for one night. He wanted her forever.Rose Tico works as a repair woman at a bordello frequented by members of The First Order. But despite the fact that she's never taken a client in her entire life, when General Armitage Hux comes in search of a mistress, she's the only one he wants.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 214
Kudos: 401





	1. Chapter One

Rose didn’t know the feeling of silk against her skin. She didn’t know the sting of leather as it tightened around her upper thighs. She didn’t know the scent of perfume. The taste of Daruvvian Champagne. The icy comfort of credits clutched to raw, broken skin. 

No. Rose Tico, formerly of Hays Minor, was just another unfortunate lost cause created by the war. But the brothel mamas and patriarchs took one look at her coming off of the refugee ship - bruised, dirty, covered in grease-stained clothes and clearly, as one so politely put it, having lost the genetic lottery to whatever siblings she had - and decided she wouldn’t be worth the investment of a shower and a warm bed. 

Until she fixed one of the droids processing them at the spaceport without so much as a second glance. She’d been so tired from their travels - being smuggled through the galaxy in a tin can of a space ship wasn’t conducive to a good rest - that she’d mostly made the repair out of half-asleep habit. But it didn’t matter. It was enough to earn her a bunk, a few rations a day, and a handful of credits. 

The work she’d been offered at S’dar’s House of Pleasure wasn’t challenging or particularly fulfilling, and the money she was making accrued slowly in a locked bank beneath her bunk. But this planet had a special...arrangement...with the First Order, which meant that they wouldn’t be storming in to take over any time soon. And after what she’d survived on Hays Minor, Rose was just happy to be in a place where the phasers were always checked at the door and her monthly allowance was paid on time. 

Besides, she needed to find her sister. They’d been separated on Hays Minor and Rose...Rose would do anything to find her again. But to do that, she needed credits. Lots of them. Credits for bribes and a new ID chip and access codes and, and, and, and, _and…_

That endless _and_ kept her working here. It kept her adjusting the moaning settings on pleasure droids and adjusting the automatic lighting features in the pleasure suites. 

And, it kept her in the back shadows of the Viewing Suite, tools in hand and obscured by the crimson Trikalian silk curtains that gave the room its heady ambiance, as Officers of the First Order selected their entertainment for the evening. This was _always_ her place during these little displays, when the highest ranking of the men came in for what amounted to First Order shore leave. S’dar valued her place as the favorite Madame on all of Sy Myrth, and if even the slightest wire came loose during her presentation of beautiful living specimens from across the galaxy and pleasure droids alike, she wanted Rose on hand to fix it. 

Rose was glad to have her back to the audience, to be hidden by darkness and silk. The thought of looking out into a sea of wide, dead eyes and the dark uniforms to which they belonged...it made her stomach turn. Every so often, when she caught a whiff of their Dilnlexian Cigars or heard their coarse laughter, she’d grip the handle of her micropoint until her knuckles went white...fascinating about how many she could take out before one of their accompanying Stormtroopers or one of S’dar’s guards caught her.

But today was different. Yes, alarm bell indicating the arrival of a First Order transport had run through the building. And yes, the usual assortment of employees and droids had been assembled for their usual flesh parade. And yes, Rose still found herself in her usual spot behind the curtains. 

The thing about not being able to see the people you want to kill is that you become very attuned to what they sound like. How their boots clomp on the floor as they circle around whatever poor creature they want to pay for. How their breath hits the air with surprising force. How their guffaws and drunken slurs fight each other for attention. 

Today, there was none of that. There was only the slow, quiet breaths of one man. No laughter. No cigar smoke. Nothing. 

Some of her bunkmates had told Rose that a General - the one who _never_ set foot planetside, much less came to a place like S’dar’s - was going to be coming today, but she hadn’t expected him to come alone.

Her pulse and her mind raced. Just one in the room. A general, no less. While S’dar was muttering to him about the various attributes and features of each of the charges available for his selection, could Rose take him out? Her heart soared, then plummeted. No. Of course not. And anyway, that wouldn’t bring her sister back. It would only ensure she never saw her again. 

Breathing slowly to control her heartbeat, Rose listened in more closely to the muttered conversation between S’dar and this general. His clipped, Imperial-sounding accent sent a shiver down her spine. 

“No,” he said, resolutely, “None of these will do.” 

“If you’re looking for a reduction in price, General Hux, I can assure you that you cannot put a price on quality,” cooed S’dar, in her usual smooth, cajoling way. 

“Quality? Hardly. The ID-89 in position eight has a loose rear panel. I can see it from here.” 

“I’m so sorry, General. If the ID-89 interests you - ”

Rose was moving out from behind the curtain before S’dar ever called her name. When she stepped out from the darkness - and safety - of the small off-stage holding area and onto the bright lights of the sleek, silver viewing platform, she had to blink to adjust her vision to the light, but moved quickly towards the droid, just as she’d been taught. _Head down. No eye contact. Silence._ If she wasn’t available for purchase, she had no reason to be stealing the attention of the available merchandise. That’s what S’dar had always said. But when Rose finally did lift her eyes to begin her inspection, she couldn’t help but look out and take a peek at the man who’d come here alone, the one they’d all been whispering about. The General of the First Order. 

She’d expected to have a glance at him. For her to get one blurry half-image of him that morphed into a monster in her mind and featured in her nightmares forever. 

But when she looked up, icy blue eyes met hers. Caught. He’d caught her. 

No, perhaps trapped was the right word. Because when she looked at him - with all of his cold menace and sharp angles and harsh, professional civility - she found that she couldn’t look away. He reminded her of the Pict, a carnivorous plant species from back home. Over generations of evolution, their beauty and symmetry had grown into genetic perfection, the perfect lure for their prey. 

Rose couldn’t force herself back to her work. She couldn’t even force her heart to function properly. And before she could think better of it, before she could remind herself that he was her enemy, a member of the army that had ruined and taken everything from her, one single thought dominated her mind. 

_He looks so sad_. 

Then, all at once, she was conscious of soft, pink lips moving. A gloved hand pointed squarely in her direction. Hunger and surprise mixed in the frozen lakes of his eyes. It was magnetic, an instant attraction that she was already drawn into before she could be repulsed by it. “This one.” 

It took Rose a minute to realize he meant her. It took Rose an even longer minute to realize that he meant he wanted to purchase her. And it took every fragment of strength she had in her to keep from running or vomiting right there on his polished boots. 

This monster desired her? 

Finally, Rose managed to tear her gaze away from him. S’dar was a lot of things, but reckless with her employees was not one of them. She would be even less inclined to risk her reputation by offering up an inexperienced mechanic to one of the most powerful men who’d ever walked through her doors. S’dar wore a fake, but panicked smile. 

“General, she is - ”

The General kept his eyes on Rose’s cheeks; she could feel the trail of heat he left in his wake. 

“I don’t like to repeat myself. This is the one I’ve chosen.” 

“Rose is a beautiful flower, yes, but she is, unfortunately, not available. She’s nothing but a mechanic. A no one. A nothing. We have far more beautiful selections available, General, ones who will be able to give a man of your stature the pleasure he deserves. Perhaps you would even like more than one - ”

“No. I will have her.” 

Rose opened her mouth to speak. To protest. To cry and scream and curse his name into the darkness of space. Nothing came out.  
  


S’dar tried once more to change his mind. “But - ”

“ _Only_ her.” 

From her vantage point, Rose could not take in the sight of the look he focused on S’dar at that moment. All she could decipher was the cold malice in his voice and the instant way S’dar melted beneath the weight of his command. The old woman pulled her arms from the oversized sleeves of her embroidered blue silk robes and waved at the droids and creatures populating the stage all around Rose. That one simple action dismissed them, and once they were all gone, S’dar began typing on the comm pad at her wrist. 

Now alone on stage, reality settled around Rose’s shoulders. She wasn’t even looking at the General any longer and still, she felt naked under his gaze. Like he’d already had her just by setting his eyes upon her. Something hot and electric sparked beneath Rose’s skin, but she shoved the sensation aside for cold, unmovable fear of what was to come. _S’dar is agreeing. She’s letting him have me_. 

“Of course, General. I will prepare her myself and send her to your room posthaste. I’ve already taken the liberty of leaving a bottle of Daruvvian Champagne in your suite.” S’dar pointed to a rose-gold droid who, until now, had been standing silently at the door. “My protocol droid will lead you there.” 

“Very well.” 

And with that - well, that and one long, last, fire-written gaze - the General disappeared. Leaving S’dar and Rose and every one of Rose’s worst nightmares come true. 

She always said she would do what it took to survive. Even if it meant learning to sell herself. Even if it meant lying and cheating and stealing and running rackets across this whole galaxy. She would do anything to find her sister. 

But giving herself over to a First Order General? _That_ First Order General? The one who looked at her as though he wanted to take her apart piece by piece just so he could put her back together again? 

The second he was through the door, Rose stumbled towards the edge of the stage, so fast and so erratic that she fell to her knees. She dropped her micropoint to the floor below with a clatter, but clutched the lip of the display station to keep her steady. Tears were already rising in her throat, but they hadn’t yet made it to her eyes.

“S’dar. S’dar, please. You can’t - ”

“Do you want credits, girl? Real credits? The kind that can revive the dead?”

The force of her voice, the intensity of her conviction, nearly sent Rose backwards again. Rose didn’t talk about her life before she came here. How did S’dar know about her sister? About Rose’s endless journey to finding her? Or was her story so common that the truth was so easy to guess? 

S’dar’s eyes burned as she stalked forward. “That man is one of the most important men in the galaxy. He practically jingles when he walks. Follow the sound and give him what he wants.” 

Rose’s jaw locked. She’d been at the mercy of men and their monsters and their mercenary whims for so long. For too long. “What about what I want?”

For a brief, flickering moment, S’dar’s features softened and a flicker of a younger, kinder version of herself materialized beneath all of the paint and jewels with which she adorned her skin. Her voice lowered, as if she and Rose were sharing some great, big secret. “He seems like the kind of man who could _get you_ what you want.” 

* * *

The preparations that they put Rose through were rushed, but painstaking. And painful. Rose had never before felt the blush of feather-light silk against her skin, nor the sting of leather, but the moment that they squeezed her body into both, the more she yearned for the rough-fabric comfort of her mechanic’s duster. S’dar had requested clothes that left more to the imagination than the usual fare worn by the pleasure-providers, but even with much of her body technically covered by a wing-thin robe tied at her waist, Rose couldn’t help but feel naked before the General had even touched her.

That bare feeling didn’t leave when she found herself standing outside of his room, her now-painted fingers hovering over the entrance pad. In her mind’s eye, she could still see him caught in that first shared glance of theirs. What would it be like to know a man like that? To have his weight atop her own? To feel his lips upon hers? To have his gloved hands travel between her - 

Rose slammed the entrance button. The pneumatic door opened. She didn’t want to think about it. Or the way it awakened feelings in her she didn’t want to have.

Stepping inside, she surveyed the Imperial Suite, so named for the last regime that used Sy Myrth as a playground. The most grand and opulent of the suites reserved only for the most important of clients, Rose didn’t often have reason to come in this room. Dark furnishings lined black furs adorned the space, and were illuminated by changing illumi-strips of neon. Now, they were set to a deep, dark blue, one that cast the entire room in an otherworldly glow. 

The General - Armitage Hux, S’dar had informed her - sat in a tall-backed chair, holding a flute of Daruvvian bubbles in one hand and a data pad in the other. The man was so tall, such an imposing figure, that even tucked away, he dominated the space. With his legs spread wide, it was certainly the most casual she’d seen him so far, and she could not help but feel the rush of heat that entered her body at the sight of him. Hatred, deep and searing...and something else mixed in with it, too. Something she didn’t want to inspect too closely. 

She swallowed hard. The hairs on the back of her neck raised on-end. She hesitated in the doorway, wanting to preserve her distance from him as long as she could. 

“You wanted to see me?” Rose asked, her voice a flat, straight line. 

General Hux practically snapped to attention, rising to his feet and throwing his shoulders back, like she was some troop he was about to inspect, rather than a foreign body he was about to invade. 

“Yes. Please. Do come in. Champagne?”

“I don’t take drinks from strangers.” 

“I should have known a non-professional would have spirit.” Retiring his glass and his datapad, Hux waved a hand in her direction. Every instinct told her to flee, but she stayed rooted to the spot. There was something different about his demeanor here, away from S’dar and the rest of the prying eyes of the bordello. Something lighter. Something a little more free. Still restrained, still so tightly wound she wondered if he’d ever taken his clothes off, much less had sex before. But still...less formal. Rose wasn’t sure she liked it. “Come. Let me behold you.” 

Rose knew that the smart thing would be to bow her head and take whatever he threw at her gracefully, then accept the credits and be done with it. She could hate him as much as she wanted within the safety of her own mind and heart, he would never know the difference, and she’d be one step closer to finding her sister. But when was the last time anyone like her had ever had a private audience with someone like General Armitage Hux? He was stuck here, with her. She was going to make the most of it. Crossing her arms as if that would do anything about the fact that her breasts would almost certainly be exposed if she took too deep a breath, she scoffed. “Behold me? Pretty romantic choice of words for what you’re about to make me do.”

  
  


“It isn’t romantic. It’s artistic,” Hux said, his gaze focused squarely on her face. “One should always behold a great work of art. Besides, you don’t have the first idea what I want to do with you.” 

“I may come from what you murderers think of as some kind of planetary backwater for you to invade and trample but believe me, I’m smart enough to know what sex is, at least. And I’m not stupid enough to fall for any lines about my looks.”

Rose had always been teased about her looks. She was too chubby, too soft, not quite the beauty her sister had been. In her heart, she knew that there _was_ something special about the way she looked - a sparkle to her smile, the color of her eyes - but the rest of the galaxy hadn’t wanted to see it.

There wasn’t much space left between them. If Rose reached out, she could touch the lapel of his First Order uniform without even stretching too far. This hadn’t been what she’d expected. Manners and quiet conversation and _beholding_. She’d expected to be tossed on the bed and counting the seconds until it was over. 

It was harder to hate him this way. Harder to ignore that searching sadness in his eyes, eyes which he now narrowed at her. 

“What’s your name?” 

“Rose Tico.”

“Well, Rose Tico. Let’s make a few things perfectly clear. First, I chose you for a reason, and it wasn’t because I doubt your intelligence. Second, when you’re speaking to a General of the First Order, you will address him as such. And finally, your time is already bought and paid for. So I don’t need to fill your head with nonsense in order to get you into my bed.” How was it possible that he was complimenting her and threatening her all at once? How did he manage to look at her as if he could light her clothes on fire with a single glance? “If I wish it, you will be there.”

When had he gotten so close? When had her heartbeat gotten so fast? When had he gotten so _tall_ ? Her mouth set somewhere between a grimace and a smirk. “And do you wish it... _General_?”

To her surprise, it took Hux a moment before he could respond. Turning away from her, he went to sit on the edge of the bed. Just the sight of him there was a taunt, reminding her of the inevitable. “Come now. Information like that is a weapon. Imagine what a pretty face and a mind like yours could get out of a man like me if I said yes.”

“And imagine my horror if I was the kind of woman that a man like you would want.” 

Rose spit the words before she could think better of it. But she didn’t regret them. On the contrary, actually saying it out loud - and seeing the way the General’s already pale face paled when she did - gave her all the more courage to continue. All of the pent-up rage she’d been hiding, all of the tears she’d refused to let herself shed, all of the injustice that had been corroding the interior of her heart since that dreaded day on Hays Minor...it all came out in a hissing, accusing follow-up. She didn’t move from her spot on the floor, but her voice carried directly to him. 

“Does that shock you, General? That a woman who had her entire planet destroyed by your weapons testing would be disgusted by your touch? That she would be terrified that you would ravage her what like you ravaged her home?” 

Hux searched her face again. All of the professional levity that had been in his voice earlier was gone. For a brief moment, his eyes slipped closed, as if he was afraid he was about to be right about something and dreaded the confirmation. “...Hays Minor?” 

“Hays Minor,” Rose said. Her voice broke, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about any of it anymore. If he was going to take her body, then she was going to make sure he paid for it in more than a bit of currency. “My parents are gone. My sister is missing. And you stand here and think that a rank and a few credits could buy my compliance? 

Hux wasn’t looking at her anymore. “Hays Minor was necessary for progress.”

“You aren’t so sure now that you’re looking at me, are you?”

“The Rebellion destroyed my planet. They killed my mother. We are all part of a cycle.”

“And what have you done to break it?” Rose spit. 

“I came here, for one thing.” 

“So you could use and abuse a victim of your regime even further?” 

Despite having called him a murderer and an invader, _that_ was the thing that broke something within the General. 

“I am not here to _fuck_ you, Miss Tico. I am here to acquire a mistress.” 

“A mistress?” she repeated, the blood rushing from her face. 

Hux nodded, and rose from the edge of the bed. This time, when he approached her, she matched him, step for step, backward. The word mistress had more implications than she could possibly count right now, but one thing stood out above the rest. General Armitage Hux didn’t just want her for one night. He wanted her forever. 

“Fine things. Privilege. Access. More credits than you could spend in a lifetime.” 

“And all I’d have to do is to sit on the end of your leash?”

To her immense shock, he _almost_ smiled. “It isn’t my sexual fantasy, but I am more than willing to explore the possibility if it’s yours.” 

“Don’t -” she warned. 

“No, it’s not to be on the end of my leash. In exchange for everything you could ever want -”

“- As if you could ever fathom what I want - ”

“I want a mistress who will show me what it feels like to be loved.”

She was now backed into the wall. The cold, dark metal stung the bare flesh beneath her gossamer robes. A hiss threatened her lips at the sensation, but _another_ sting took precedence. _Love_. The monster wanted love. 

No. Not love. He didn’t even have goodness in him enough to want that. He just wanted to know what it felt like. 

He was so close to her now. The warm patter of his breath on her lips awakened an ache in them she didn’t know she could have. The distance between their two chests was so small that if he’d breathed any deeper, the fabric of his uniform would have brushed against her nipples, hiding beneath a thin layer of lingerie silk. She was trapped here, in this place, in this moment, in this dance of desire and hatred, with _this_ man. 

“You cannot be serious.” 

“I desire to be touched with kindness. To know what it feels like. Why beings across the galaxy are so obsessed with it.”

“Kindness?” She laughed, but the sound was hollow even to her own ears. It was a defense mechanism, a hiding of the conflict raging within her. They were so close, but they weren’t touching. To make matters worse, he was asking her for far more than that. “You don’t know the meaning of the word.” 

“I am a man of science. Of research. Of rules and order,” Hux said, obfuscating the obvious emotional elements of this with clinical language, as if he were giving an important conference in front of the entire First Order. “I have known how painful cruel touch can be. I now need to know the inverse. How it feels when a lover touches you. But I realize such a thing can not be achieved in a one-hour session, no matter how talented S’dar’s famed pleasure purveyors may be. No. I require a mistress.” His eyes smoldered. His voice lowered. But it sounded almost more like a plea than a threat. Down at her thigh, a tentative, gloved finger brushed against her skin, leaving a trail of gooseflesh. The touch was a question mark, and he removed it almost as quickly as she’d registered it. “And I will have no one but you.” 

Rose had always believed that The First Order was filled with liars. She’d never considered the possibility of how terrifying one who told the truth actually was. In a matter of moments, he’d confessed that he wanted to keep her, that he’d never been touched with kindness, and that he wanted her to be the one who showed him that simple pleasure. Every word of it was true. She could feel that in her bones. Which, of course, only made it all the more terrifying and entrancing. 

“But...but why?”

Hux’s jaw set. The gloved hand that had been so tentative before now came up to brush against her cheek. It was impossibly gentle. He stared at her as though he couldn’t believe she was real, as if she were some great, galactic puzzle he couldn’t solve. And with every passing moment, she became more and more aware of his body as it came to meld against hers. How every muscle of his body matched her own. His lips were right there. His tongue darted out to lick them, almost subconsciously. “You said I didn’t know the meaning of the word kindness. That’s not true. Because when I saw you, I saw it in your eyes. You hate me, you despise everything I stand for, and yet, there is a goodness you cannot hide. Like a Star burning through a black and vacant sky.”

He was right. She hated him. And everything he stood for. But still, her eyes flickered down to his lips. She wanted to know what his skin against hers would feel like. She wanted - 

The crackling comms system governing the room’s usage came to cheerful, automated life. “General Hux. Your session is now complete. Would you like to add more time to your room?” 

Hux said nothing. He still stared deeply into Rose’s eyes, awaiting her answer. An answer she didn’t have yet. “You could just take me by force,” she reminded him. 

“I suspect even a kindness as bright as yours would not survive that.” 

The comms system chimed again. Rose knew her time was running out. “General?” 

“I want you to help me find my sister,” she blurted. “If you help me find her, I’ll give you whatever it is that you want.” 

“General. Would you like to extend your time - ”

“No,” Hux said, moving away from the wall and from Rose. “I’ll take her.” 

The sudden loss of his warmth, of his contact, of the fiery hatred she’d been balancing with _other_ fires she didn’t want to acknowledge, it took Rose a moment to understand exactly what it was that he’d just said. 

“Take me?” She repeated. 

Hux, who was carefully sliding back into his coat, nodded once. As if this were the most common thing in the world. As if it was all so easy. Which, maybe for him, it was. “Yes. To The Finalizer. You didn’t think my mistress was going to stay _here_ , did you?”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone! I got this fic prompt from a fellow Gingerrose and I couldn't get it out of my head! I have it up as a one-shot right now, but if you like it and want me to continue, please let me know in the comments below or on twitter, @jrstarcatcher!


	2. Chapter Two

General Armitage Hux did not reveal weakness. Not to anyone. Perhaps, most importantly, not to himself. He didn’t like admitting his own humanity, didn’t allow himself to feel anything too deeply. This was a war they were waging, after all. A fight for the very soul and salvation of The Galaxy. There was no time for sentimentalities. No room for weakness. 

But when he saw her, walking towards the ship with her stormtrooper escort, wearing very little more than what she’d worn in the bedroom he’d rented for the hour, something inside of him broke. A very little piece of him, but like a restraining bolt on a droid, it still caused a shift. A change. Noticeable and inescapable. 

Bounding down from the gangway of the transport, he felt his own face contort with rage. Who in their right mind would have sent her out here like this, surrounded by stormtroopers like some criminal and half-nude in the thunderous planetary winds? His blood boiled. 

“What are you doing?” He barked, pointed at the lead stormtrooper with his leather-gloved hand. The entire squadron, Rose included, stopped short. She stared at the dirt beneath her booted feet, never daring to raise her eyes up at him. The modulated voice of the stormtrooper crackled a response. 

  
“We are transporting your new - ”

Hux was instantly aware of the dozens of eyes now watching this exchange. He’d never given any of them reason to suspect him as a mere Man before. He’d always tried to project a peerless image of First Order strength, always tried to succeed where others had failed. This would cause rumors in the mess halls, he knew.

But all the same. He couldn’t let her freeze. Couldn’t bear to see her head ducked in shame as most of her flesh-soft, supple, so very touchable-was exposed. 

He rationalized it to himself, saying that he was only trying to protect what was now his. It wouldn’t do to have the First Order thinking him some weak-willed man who would let his own mistress be ogled by the masses. He tried to convince himself that she was his property now, and that, as such, it was his duty to keep covetous, prying eyes from what was rightfully his. 

He didn’t believe that. But still, he told himself that he did. 

“Leave her. Go,” he commanded the faction of stormtroopers. Once they were gone, he moved before Rose, inspecting her for any signs of damage...or luggage. Did she not have anything else with her from that place? When a visual search wasn’t sufficient, he cleared his throat and asked, “Are you alright?”

She must have been as shocked at hearing the question as he was at asking it. Rose blinked, her long eyelashes dancing as sweet, soft snowflakes began to descend from above. “What?”

Hux’s jaw locked. S’dar had first taken her out of the becoming jumpsuit and shoved her into this ridiculous display, and then pushed her out of the door without even a coat? Was this how she treated people who were no longer profitable to her? 

Hux had half a mind to walk in there and order the entire operation destroyed just on this one slight, but that wouldn’t make Miss Rose Tico any warmer. Slipping his coat from his shoulders, he stepped around her to lay it over her, to conceal her from the elements. 

“You must be freezing. That batty old woman. First, she puts you in _this ridiculous outfit_ and now --” 

The fabric barely touched her bare skin before Rose jumped. “What are you doing?”

“Would you rather end up in a Med Bay?” 

_ Yes, of course. That’s it, Armitage. This is all matters of practicality. You paid a handsome sum to take this woman away; it would be a waste for her to catch her death out here. That’s why you’re doing this. Nothing more. _

As Rose slowly, painfully slowly, accepted his offer, slipping her arms through the overlong sleeves and wrapping the excess fabric around her, he couldn’t help but think of his father. That man, that hero of The Empire, had left a string of broken, damaged women in his wake. He’d say that women were convenient, good for celebrations or blowing off steam or re-focusing one’s mind on the work of running a Galaxy. 

Brendol Hux would have spit in his son’s face if he could see this display now, if he could see his son giving up his own coat so a woman he owned wouldn’t be cold. The thought burrowed under Hux’s skin and stayed there, setting him off-balance. 

  
“If you’re expecting me to say thank you --” Rose hissed. 

He almost had to admire that fiery spirit of hers. Almost. He knew better than anyone that a fiery spirit, a good spirit, wasn’t an asset. It was a liability. That’s what this entire experiment was about, wasn’t it? To get as close to goodness, to warmth, to love, as he could without getting himself burned by their flames. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t. Come. Let’s move you inside.” 

Carefully, he placed a hand on the small of her back and led her towards their transport. He was suddenly grateful for his gloves and the thick fabric of his coat separating them. The thought of touching her bare flesh again proved too much for him. 

As they approached the transport, though, Rose narrowed her gaze and slowed her steps, choosing to focus her stare not on the direction in which they were walking, but instead on two low-level First Order repairmen who were making quick work of a final system’s check. Hux gave them both a courteous  _ get back to work _ nod when they turned to salute him, but Rose dug in her heels and tried to see what they were doing. 

He’d known she was a mechanic, but hadn’t put a great deal of thought into whether or not she actually enjoyed the job. He made a mental note to seek out any information he could on the subject without seeming too obvious. 

That would be the trick with having a mistress. How to make sure she was well looked after without her  _ knowing _ it was him doing the looking after. Without giving off the impression he cared. 

  
He wanted her to care about him. Not the other way around. He didn’t even want her to suspect it. 

Gripping the fabric of the coat wrapped around her body, he gently nudged her forward and fully into the transport, where they passed more and more inquisitive eyes on the way to his Ready Room. The jump between this planet and The Finalizer would not be a long one, but still, he would not leave her in general quarters to be poked and prodded and gossiped over. 

The Ready Room was standard-issue First Order fare, which suited Hux just fine. A desk. A handful of chairs. A viewport to give him a sightline over the small navigation and command suite below. When he entered, he released his hold on Rose’s coat and made for the desk, ready to have a long, quiet return back to his ship. 

Rose wasn’t interested in the same thing, however. Soon, after the pneumatic door closed and the ship began to rise into the atmosphere, she made that clear. Spinning on her heel, she sent the bottom hem of the coat rising up on the breeze she created, giving Hux a stunning view of her legs. But it was her fiery eyes that caught him dead in his tracks. 

“You know they were doing that wrong, right? The two repairmen down below the ship?”

  
Hux’s voice caught in his throat. No one dared question him like this. No one. “I beg your pardon?” 

She crossed the floor between them, pressing her hands into the desk and leaning forward to challenge him. “You’re going to burn out the routing chip in no more than eight cycles if you don’t add a coolant coil.” 

“You dare question the expertise of The First Order?”

“You dare question basic mechanics?”

A fire went up in Hux’s insides. The First Order was his life. He’d given everything to ensure that it was running at absolute perfection. Who was  _ she _ to question that? His jaw ground tight. “I should put you over my knee--”

“Do it. Prove to me that you’re exactly who I think you are.” 

His pulse skittered as her intense, piercing gaze dug into him. All at once, he was thinking about his father again. Of all the women Hux had seen leaving his presence bloodied and bruised. Hux had just threatened to do this same thing to this one. 

Bile rose up in the back of his throat. 

This was part of the reason he’d not been around women much in his years and years of service, at least not intimately. His history was much too sordid to repeat itself. He found the ghost of his father was much easier to tame when he spent most of his time alone. 

Hux gulped and took a seat at his desk, not meeting Miss Rose Tico’s gaze. 

“I don’t wish to be your enemy,” he said, choosing his words with the utmost precision. 

“Then fix the chip.” 

“You seem to be forgetting your place here.” 

Rose wasted no time and she did not back down. If she’d been fighting for his side, if she’d been a member of The First Order, he might have admired that. “And you seem to be forgetting that your entire goal is to make me  _ want _ to touch you.” 

“Your entire life is in my hands. You should want to touch me just so you can save it.” 

“Bold of you to assume that I care about my own life.” 

That’s when Hux looked up. She’d been lording over him for awhile now, invading his space with her scent and her breath and the shadow of her breasts lurking beneath the dense fabric of his coat, but he couldn’t look away any longer. He would accept many things from her - insolence, a sharp tongue, a bit of treasonous mechanical critique. But he would not accept her lying. Not to him and not to herself. 

“You survived an invasion of your planet and worked at a Pleasure Palace to save money to search for your sister. Play all the games you like, but you cannot hide from me. Not in this. I know a survivor when I see one.” 

Rose lifted her chin, tossing her pink lips into the light and drawing all of Hux’s attention to them. “How?”

“Because I look at one every day in the mirror.” 

The words were enough to silence her. Dragging her bottom lip between her teeth, she considered what he’d just said, but guarded her eyes so he couldn’t quite see how she’d taken it. 

It shouldn’t matter to him, whether or not she believed it. But it did. He wanted her to see him as a survivor. To see them as linked somehow in this grand, broken galaxy. 

Eventually, Rose cleared her throat and tried her best to look brave. He’d have to give her lessons on that; she wasn’t nearly as good at pretending as he was. 

“So, what happens now? When I’m on your big Star Destroyer and I’ve given you my life...what happens? I’ll just sit in your bed with my legs open?”

For a moment, his mind entertained the image. Rose, sprawled and tangled in his black sheets, her soft eyes beckoning him forward, reaching for him as though she actually wanted to welcome him into her body. 

He shoved the image away. It wasn’t...he couldn’t...just...not now. 

“As appealing as the image is, no. I should like you to be my companion. Share my meals. Accompany me to functions.” He glanced up at her from over the rim of the data pad he’d been inspecting. A bit of hope entered his voice. Traitorous, bitter hope. “Perhaps, over time, you won’t see me as an enemy.” 

“Or perhaps my survival instincts will better kick in and I’ll get very good at pretending.” 

That declaration cut deep. Deeper than he would have admitted. It reminded him of their first encounter, when she’d spit at him that she was horrified at the prospect of someone  _ like him _ wanting someone like her. 

But he did want her. And he did want her to see him as an ally. To touch him like more than that.

“Once I’m satisfied that our experiment has reached a conclusion, then you’ll be released. With all of the resources of The First Order at your disposal and with everything you could need to find your sister. Funds. Transport. Access.” 

Sentimentality, as far as he was concerned, was a great weakness. Her desire to be reunited with her sister was as absurd as him ever wanting to be reunited with his mother. But if it was the weakness she’d chosen for herself, he wouldn’t object. Especially not if it kept her here, by his side. Rose glanced up at him from under long eyelashes, subtly fidgeting with the too-long sleeves of her coat.    
  
“You swear it?”

“Yes. I swear it. And as long as you are here, you are under my protection.” He’d remembered the way she trembled when surrounded by the Stormtroopers. She put on a good facade, a great performance of strength, but some things, she could not hide. His father would have laughed at trying to put her mind at ease.  _ Boy, you’re the most powerful man in this sector. The feelings of one, insignificant hole should not concern you. _ He tried his best to push that voice away. He would never let anyone know of this weakness, but he knew he would never earn Rose’s cooperation if he forced her. If he terrified her. If he was anything like his father before him. “ You’ll have no need to be afraid. Not of anything.” 

“I’m afraid of you.” 

The admission was candid. Honest. Hux’s fingers, which had come to settle upon the desk before him, moved as if to touch her, as if to show her just how gentle he could be. But just as easily as the urge struck him, he brushed it aside. 

She wouldn’t want him to touch her. 

“I won’t hurt you,” he said, in lieu of physical comfort. “I think you’ll find I’m a man of my word, Miss Rose Tico.”

_ Miss Rose Tico _ . On his lips, the words had a kind of musical quality, like a spell from an ancient witch that brought part of his locked-away heart back to life. 

Or maybe it wasn’t her name at all. Maybe it was the way she rounded the desk, came to his side of it, and lifted herself up so she could perch on the edge. 

She crossed one leg in front of the other at the knee, letting her large coat fall to the wayside and give him a peek at the body beneath. Her soft thighs tried to lead him upward. In response, tried to keep his focus on her face.    
  
“What do I call you, then?” Rose asked, leaning forward. She wasn’t playing some game here. She wasn’t trying to seduce him. But he felt seduced all the same. 

He cleared his throat, returning to his datapad. “General will suit quite well. Thank you.” 

But Rose wanted his attention. Placing one finger beneath his chin, she tilted him up to face her as her mouth wrapped around the word. 

  
  
  


“General.” 

She tested the sound, but he wasn’t thinking about that anymore. Instead, he was thinking about all the other things her mouth could be doing right now, all the other ways she could be panting and sighing and moaning his title. 

That would have been complicating enough. But then, she had to go and touch him. Pulling herself off of the desk, Rose moved forward, forward, forward, until there was nowhere to go but his lap. She placed herself there, not quite confidently, not quite reluctantly. Like she was torn between desire and honor of her own. 

He didn’t dare think that she could really want him. Didn’t dare dream that she actually felt a fraction of what he felt. Like she’d said, she wanted to get very good at pretending.

But that didn’t stop his body from wanting more. No one had dared come this close to him in years. The last time anyone had been this near, he’d earned scars as reminders of it. His body reacted in kind. As she shifted her wait upon him, his length hardened. His mouth actually ached from not being kissed. He swallowed, trying to steady his breathing. 

“What are you doing?”

“You said you wanted research, didn’t you? Shouldn’t we get started right away?”

_ Right. Yes. Of course _ . He couldn’t show weakness. He was taking her halfway across the galaxy and having her as a mistress. She held an immense power over him. Allowing her to see his weakness would be dangerous. Very, very dangerous. Lifting his chin, defiantly, he nodded. “Yes. That would be...prudent.” 

After all, this was what he’d wanted. Wasn’t it? He wanted her to touch him, to feel him, to show him what it was like to be loved, what it was like to be wanted and praised and desired and cared for. 

Rose reached down for one of his gloved hands, and began to slowly remove it. But then, she must have noticed his fingers were trembling. 

Treacherous body. 

“You’re nervous,” Rose said, but to his surprise, there was no judgment in her tone. Nor in her eyes. Hux scoffed. 

  
  
“I am a General of the First Order. I’m afraid of nothing.” 

“Then let me touch you. It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

Apparently deciding that his hand was a lost cause, Rose placed it back down on the arm of the chair and reached instead for his face. He flinched back, catching her wrist in his hand. 

  
It wasn’t rough or hard or violent. But it was instinct. And he hated himself for that. He’d wanted pleasure. Why couldn’t he let her give it to him? 

“I should be in control,” he said, catching her eye and holding it. Rose shook her head, the motion loosing even more of her dark, black hair and exposing more of her body as the coat fell slightly off of her shoulders. 

  
“Where has that gotten you so far? A thousand credits poorer, paying for a woman to show you any kind of kindness? You can tell me to stop, but don’t say it’s because you want control. Don’t lie to me. Tell me the truth.” 

She was in no position to make demands. No position to tell him what he was and wasn’t to do. Hux wanted to tell her so, wanted to command that she bow to him and serve him and give him what it was that he wanted. 

But the truth was...he didn’t know what he wanted. His now had this woman in his lap, ready to give him anything, and he didn’t know what to do with her. 

The truth was, he suspected he could tell the difference between begrudging touch and loving touch. And he didn’t know if he could stomach Rose Tico with the kind eyes and the head for mechanics and the soft, inviting skin and the perfect lips just touching him because she had to. 

He wanted her to want him. 

Slowly, he released her wrist. Her eyes - piercing and bold - rested squarely on him. 

“Who hurt you? Tell me the truth,” she whispered. 

Too perceptive for her own good. Damn her for that. 

“The truth…” 

_ I don’t know the truth. I can’t tell you the truth. I’ve never been someone to whom the truth really mattered much. I don’t even know if I could spot it if I happened upon it.  _

But just at that moment, the ship’s systems announced that they had reached The Finalizer. And Hux gently moved Rose from his lap and stood to his full height, once again adopting his perfect First Order persona and refusing to look at her. 

“The truth is that you look quite well in my coat, Miss Tico. And I’ll see you at supper.” 

And with that, he was gone. Out of the door. Back to his real life. Back to the decks and the First Order where things made sense. Where he could check his feelings at the door. 

But he hadn’t made it ten steps from his Ready Room when a short ensign skidded in his boots and, quite impertinently, gawked at his superior officer. 

“General Hux, are you quite alright?” 

  
  
“Yes. Perfectly well. Why do you ask?”

“Your uniform is askew, sir. I’ve never seen it out of place before. You’re a model of First Order excellence.” The young man, clearly seeing that this was the exact wrong thing to say at this time, swallowed, hard. A bead of sweat formed at his hairline. His body shook from the effort it took to keep himself at perfect attention. “Sir.” 

“Mind your own uniform, ensign. And bring me a large cup of Tarine Tea to the bridge.” 

The ensign agreed and skittered off, but Hux knew that the tea would be cold before he even got to it. He would need a cold, cold visit to the Refresher before he made it anywhere near the bridge of The Finalizer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! Chapter two! I hope you all like it. Let me know what you think! <3 I'm a little bit uncertain, but I hope you all like it!


	3. Chapter Three

Rose tried to tell herself that she had only done it because of his promise. The faster he got what he wanted, the faster he would let her go again. His promise still rang in her ears. Wealth. Travel. Access.

But there were other things, too. Things she couldn’t have anticipated. The way his coat had fallen to give him full view of her legs. The way he’d looked at those bare legs, like they were unexplored, mysterious territory that he wanted to conquer...and was terrified of being any closer to. The way her own body had responded when she’d sat on his lap. The way her heart thundered in her ears. The sudden rush of desire she felt when she’d reached for his gloved hands.

It was...complicated. And when he’d left her alone in the ready room of his transport, she tried not to dwell on it.

No. He’d said it himself. She was a survivor. She’d survived the invasion of her home. She’d survived in the pleasure palace. And now that she was here, aboard a Star Destroyer, she’d just have to learn how to survive here, too.

She didn’t need to think any more deeply about her captor; she didn’t need to acknowledge the raging sea in the pit of her stomach. She just needed to keep her head down, play The General’s game, and get out of here as soon as she could.

Suddenly, the pneumatic door of Hux’s Ready Room hissed open, and Rose jumped off of the desk, tugged his coat tight around her, and tried to look somewhat respectable. She fingered the thick, lined fabric, but tried not to think about what it meant that he’d given it to her. She didn’t want to delude herself that he was trying to protect her. Didn’t want to believe in even a flicker of hope for him. She wasn’t sure he deserved it.

When the door finally opened, a small, slender, dark-haired man in an equally dark uniform stood at attention, framed by the light from the hallway behind him. Even from this distance, though, Rose could see the way he hesitated, the uncomfortable set of his jaw that gave away his nerves.

“Miss Rose Tico?” he asked, his voice stronger than Rose suspected he really felt.

She shifted in her - no, The General’s - coat. “Yes?”

“I am Dopheld Mitaka. General Hux requested that I bring you to quarters. Is this, uh, satisfactory?”

Rose’s lips threatened a smirk, and she tested the boundaries of her new cage. Dopheld Mitaka did not seem as cold and distant as her captor. He just seemed like another guy in another dead-end job, one that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t very comfortable with. Rose decided to take a chance on this stranger, looking up at him from under jokingly teasing eyebrows.

“Do I have to?”

The ghost of a smile tugged at his cheeks. He teased back, much to her relief, but the effect was slight, almost like the suggestion of humanity beneath his polished, First Order exterior. “I’m afraid that if you don’t, I’ll end up in the brig.”

“I guess we’d better then.”

Rose said it as a joke. Well, as much of a joke as she could manage under the given circumstances. Humor was usually her defense mechanism, a way of pretending that the bleak machinations of life weren’t everything.

With a smooth gesture of his arm, Mitaka offered to lead her out of the Ready Room, and Rose took her first steps hesitantly. This was the beginning of a whole new life for her, a new and terrible adventure. She didn’t know how to make her feet work any more quickly than they already were, given that they felt made of the heaviest stone. But Mitaka’s somewhat warm air - well, what passed for warmth when contrasted with the man she’d practically sold herself to - eventually got her going, and soon enough, she found herself walking through the belly of a First Order Star Destroyer.

Always a little on the short side, Rose recognized that she was a small person. But nothing ever made her feel as small as walking through that ship. The black plating of the walls shot high above her; they lorded over her like great, towering mountains set against an impenetrably dark night sky. She shivered as they crossed the cold flooring of the hangar bay, as if a shadow had crossed over her very being.

As they moved from the hangar and through the sharp-cornered gangways of the ship, she and Mitaka walked in silence, for the most part, and it didn’t escape Rose’s notice how, on this ship, in comparison with when they’d been planet-side, no one so much as dared to look in her direction. If anyone made an accidental slip-up, they immediately corrected the error by turning to march the opposite way.

She’d never been someone who was looked at. Never anyone of any great consequence. Now, the fact that they weren’t staring made her feel stranger than if they were staring. Their deliberate refusal to so much as breathe the same canned air as her sent shivers down her spine; she felt General Hux’s invisible leash tighten around her neck.

No one wanted to look at the boss’ property, she realized.

When they finally reached a turbolift, Mitaka gestured her inside before entering a code on an interior wall panel. The doors closed, and suddenly, the two of them were alone. For a moment, Rose’s heart sped up. She worried that he could see the way her hands were shaking.

As it turned out, she didn’t need to worry. Mitaka kept himself completely still, staring at the silvered front wall of the turbolift with all the discipline of a good soldier. Things were silent for a moment. Then, without turning to look at her, he blurted out:

“You know, you are much prettier than I expected.”

Rose blinked. It was, without a doubt, the last thing she’d expected to hear right about now. If she’d been anywhere else, she might have laughed. “What?”

“The General is…” Mitaka cleared his throat. “You won’t tell him I said anything, will you?”

“I don’t plan on telling him anything,” she promised, meaning it not just for his secrets, but for hers, too. The General didn’t need to know anything more about her than he knew already.

Mitaka’s leather gloves squeaked as he shifted his hands uncomfortably behind his back. “The General is, uh, you could say that he isn’t particularly engaged with-”

“You’ve never seen him with a woman before?” Rose supplied.

“I just didn’t know what to expect, is all. I’m hopeful that you could, that you will, as they say, get the data spring out of his rear.”

At first, this had all been a little bit funny. A man interested in the first woman his superior officer had ever brought back. But now, a shot of sadness moved through Rose’s heart. Hux held men like this in the palm of his hands. He could do anything he wanted to them. If they thought she was going to be their salvation from whatever it was they were afraid of...they were sadly mistaken. Rose shook her head, loose strands falling all around her downcast face.

“I think you’ve got the wrong girl for that.”

The turbolift doors open, and Mitaka moved to stand on the other side of them. He glanced at her meaningfully, the ghost of a knowing smile once again on his face. “No. I don’t think I do.”

Before she could object again, he waved for her to follow him. This level of the ship was unlike any of the others she’d seen so far. There was no hallway; there was only one small antechamber separating the turbolift doors from the doors of what she could only assume were the General’s quarters.

Rose gulped. This was her new prison. She steeled herself for the worst.

Mitaka reached into his pocket and withdrew a small access chip, which he presented to her. It glistened against the harsh white lighting set into the walls overhead. He pointed to a small link device on the doorframe, and she used it to open the doors.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting of The General’s Quarters. Chains? A cage? A bed that he could tie her with shock-lace and keep her there, immobile, forever? She wasn’t sure. But this certainly wasn’t it. The Quarters were more akin to something one might find in a holovideo of a luxury liner - sparse, well-lit, and incredibly tidy. The first room was a kind of sitting room, with a long relaxation unit along one wall and a viewscreen situated against the center of the opposite wall’s external viewport. A small bar shaped like the Inner Galaxy, with several small planetary orbs holding different kinds of liquor and glasses, sat in the corner, but something about its stillness told her it didn’t get used very often. Further along, through an opening farther down the room, she could see the bedroom and a refresher beyond.

It was large. Elegant. Sterile. And completely without personality.

Still, she was drawn to it. The room was a puzzle for her to solve, a place to inspect for any clues about the man she’d bound herself to. With every breath and every heartbeat, she found herself walking deeper and deeper into the space. Mitaka spoke behind her, lingering in the doorway.

“Your clothes will be delivered at precisely 1900. Supper will be served in the Officer’s Hall at 1930. The General has instructed me to inform you that once your clothes arrive, you will be provided with a holo-map of unrestricted areas where you may go when not in your quarters.” The man paused, clearly trying to decide on a polite way to say please don’t go out any more while you’re wearing little more than the General’s coat. “For now, it might be best for you to remain here. Will you be requiring anything else?”

Rose was busy inspecting the bar, moving the planetary half-spheres to test if they were rusting - they weren’t, which meant he either used this bar more than she suspected or he was so fastidious that he regularly had the mechanisms that made them spin on their central axis oiled to prevent such a thing - so she didn’t even look up to see Mitaka off. “No. I don’t think so.”

For a long moment, she didn’t hear anything but the sound of the man’s breathing. Eventually, he spoke up again. “Then...may I be dismissed?”

“You don’t need my permission.”

When she did turn to give him her attention, the tops of his sharp cheeks were turning slightly pink. “Actually, Miss Tico...I do. You’re an extension of The General.”

Of everything that had happened over the last however many hours, that was the thing that shocked Rose’s system the most. She’d gone from being nothing, a no one with no power, no influence, no control over her own existence, really, to someone with the galaxy at her fingertips. All because she’d agreed to sleep with their General.

Her stomach turned with shame. Not just shame at what she would have to do to keep this power, but shame at the fact that secretly, a small and infinitesimal part of her liked it.

These soldiers had run roughshod over her home planet. They’d used it to test their weapons. They’d separated her from her sister. And now...now, they had to listen to her. To do whatever she said. To obey her whims and fall to her orders.

The taste of blood filled her mouth, and she realized she’d been biting the inside of her cheek. She cleared her throat. “Then....sure. You’re dismissed”

“Thank you,” Mitaka said, with a stern, practiced bow of his head. But when he looked up again, he was smiling a little too eagerly. “And best of luck.”

He was gone before Rose could tell him she didn’t need luck to save the soldiers from their General. She would need a Force-willed miracle.

* * *

For awhile, Rose waited by the door, watching the movement scanner installed above the frame until its small, blinking lights went still once more. She’d made up her mind to snoop. To dig up dirt on the man she needed to use for her freedom. The last thing she needed was anyone coming in here and discovering her.

The timepiece on the far wall told her she had a while before anyone would be in with her new clothes. Good. She would probably need all the time she could get.

“Alright, General,” she said, shoving the sleeves of her oversized coat up towards her elbows. “Show me your secrets.”

Carefully, Rose began her search. Looking for anything and everything that would tell her what The General would not. But the harder she looked, the less she found. The only food kept in the place was a container of standard-issue nutrition bars. A water purification and delivery unit. The viewscreen contained no saved programs. The holo-projector’s only files accessible without an access code were some propaganda videos she had no interest in watching.

His bedroom was utilitarian. The back wall was covered in a thick curtain which, upon activation of a nearby wall switch, would move aside to offer access to a stunning viewport out onto the sea of stars around them. The datapads on his bedside table only contained crew reports. The room’s only three main features seemed to be the refresher, the wardrobe unit, and the bed in the center of the space, which dominated the whole room.

For a long time, Rose stood at the foot of that bed, staring down at it and thinking about what it meant. What it would mean when she finally got in that bed with General Hux. Images - forbidden and vivid - flashed through her mind as two conflicting emotions fought for control of her body.

Cold chills ran down her spine. Hot sparks traveled up her legs, directly to her center. She turned away from the bed as quickly as she could.

The wardrobe unit became her next point of fascination, but at first, she was as disappointed in this space as she had been in the rest of his quarters. Uniforms. The man owned nothing but uniforms.

A little voice in the back of her head reminded him just how good he looked in those uniforms, with their sharp, fine tailoring and the way the black fabric tugged across his pale skin, but she brushed that thought away. What kind of person only owned standard-issue work clothes?

Carefully, trying to disturb as little as possible, she began searching through the racks of clothing for something else. Anything else. Anything to prove that he was at least a little bit of a human, and not just a First Order machine.

And then, there, in the back of the wardrobe unit, she found it. Not other clothes, but a strange collection of odds and ends that sent of alarm bells in the back of her mind.

A small, locked box made of a metal she didn’t recognize. A rough-leather tool belt of small mechanical instruments. And a mousedroid with dead light-units and a broken antenna.

Rose knew she shouldn’t touch anything back there. She should shut the wardrobe unit, turn around, and try to find something to occupy her until she was summoned for dinner. But her instincts didn’t listen to her better judgment. Before she could stop herself, she reached out to the droid and pulled it out of the unit, holding it up to her face for inspection.

“Hey, little guy. What are you doing back here?”

The thing was a broken disaster of metal parts, loose wiring, and broken casing. For some reason, Rose didn’t want to put it back. Not only that, now that she’d seen such a broken, fragile thing, she knew she couldn’t put it back. She didn’t know quite why, but something about this droid spoke to her, begged her not to just lock it away and forget about it. Tucking the droid under one arm, she reached for the tool kit in the back of the unit. “Don’t worry,” she promised the droid as if her life depended on it. “I’ll fix you.”

And that’s exactly what she did. Or, at least, what she tried to do. Settling herself and her tools in the center of the living quarters’ floor, she pulled her coat tight around her - no, kriff, it was his coat - and got to work. Time passed by her. She was vaguely aware of its coming and going. But really, all she could think about was this little metal creature. All she could think about was fixing it.

It was nice to think of nothing for awhile. Nothing but gears and wires and the feeling of both beneath her hands. Nice to forget about where she was, what she had agreed to in order to get there, and what she was going to have to do to get out again.

That’s why, when the door of the quarters hissed open, she practically jumped through the ceiling in distracted terror.

A confused-looking ensign - short, struggling under the weight of three alloy cases - peered down at her, clearly confused at the sight of her on the floor.

“Miss Hux?”

Rose’s heart rushed at the sound of those particular words. “Excuse me?”

“You’re the General’s… You’re his...” The ensign swallowed hard, and dropped the boxes at his feet. A drop of nervous sweat trickled down his forehead. “Here. Those are your clothes.”

“Thank you,” Rose said, her heart going out to this small, scared kid. She tried to be as kind as she could manage. “You know, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”

The kid’s hands were still shaking when he crossed to the other side of the entrance and slammed the close mechanism on the door. “You’re not the one I’m afraid of.”

And with that, he was gone.

Rose returned to her work. She didn’t want to think about what he’d just said or what it meant for the man she’d just locked herself away with.

She tinkered. And toyed. And worked. And sweated. And calculated, then recalculated. Then adjusted. All the while reminding herself to keep an eye on the nearby timepiece. To not let herself get too distracted...

“What are you doing?”

But then, all of the sudden, the door hissed opened and a familiar voice shattered her silence. Her peace. When she looked up, Armitage Hux, the esteemed and terrifying General of the First Order and now her captor, stood over her, his tall, slender body casting a long shadow over her. A real shadow, this time. Not a cold, distant one like she’d felt when she first walked aboard this ship.

Rose barely had the time to brush the droid and the tools behind her back as he closed the space between them. Her eyes moved to the timepiece on the wall. Her stomach sank. She wasn’t just tardy. It was 2230. She’d been so consumed by her work that she’d missed it altogether.

“Nothing. I was just -”

His face flushed. His voice was cold, his anger so barely concealed that it shook every syllable. Maybe she was imagining it, but it felt...almost like he was hurt. And trying not to show it. That was the only thing keeping her from total and complete terror. “You missed dinner. I sat through an entire meal across from an empty seat. I offer you kindness and this is how you repay me? You told me that cruelty would not win you. This has not convinced me you were right.”

Rose shifted backwards, trying even harder to cover the evidence of her lateness with the large flaps of his coat. “I didn’t mean to. I just, I guess I lost track of time.”

“What was so important that you couldn’t even change your clothes?”

His eyes dragged across her body, most of which now was not covered by her coat. Her skin flushed. But then, suddenly, when Hux’s eyes met hers, there was a strange sadness in their depths, one he tried to cover up as he straightened and pretended to be his usual, professional, detached self. He cleared his throat and adjusted his gloves at the wrist.

“Did you not want to join me?”

No, obviously not. Especially if this is how you were going to treat me, she wanted to say. But something in his voice, in the slightly slack set of his shoulders, held her back.

Rose didn’t just love her mechanical work because she was good at it. She didn’t just love the way machinery awakened her mind and sent her heart racing. The reason she really loved it? The reason she really thought she found so much success with it? Because what she really loved, more than anything else, was fixing broken things. Finding just the right combination of parts and oil and chips to make what was once cracked and irreparable suddenly spring back to wholeness, to completion.

When she looked at Hux then, she realized that he wasn’t just some monster stalking at the shadows of her life, waiting to strike and use her. He was a broken thing, just like the small droid she was hiding behind her coat.

His coat.

Carefully, Rose rose to her feet and stepped aside, revealing the small, broken creature on the floor.

“I found this when I was looking for a place to put my clothes,” she lied, not wanting to tell him about her snooping. When his eyes narrowed slightly at her and he reached out to pick the thing up by two of the wires she’d just been checking, as if it were some kind of offensive animal that had snuck in and destroyed his sanctuary, she rushed to add, “I think I can fix him. I mean, I’m sure I can fix him. I just, I couldn’t sit here and do nothing when I knew he was broken. I started to tinker and then I really did lose track of time.”

“Why are you rambling like that? Are you afraid of me?”

“Everyone else is. Why shouldn’t I be?”

Hux stared at her for a long, lingering moment. Long enough to light a fire beneath her collarbone. He’d come in here angry, rumpled, hurt. And now...now, she didn’t know what he was. A mystery.

“If you want to be useful, I can arrange for you to have some work with the Engineering Corps. I oversee a fine outfit here on The Finalizer. This is just some old junk. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on it,” Hux said, turning his back on her and taking the mouse droid with him. Rose’s pulse roared in her ears. She wasn’t just going to let him get away with dismissing her like that. Not when he was so clearly lying about it being some old junk.

“Then why was it in the back of your wardrobe unit?”

“I’d discarded it but forgotten to throw it out,” he said, walking towards his bedroom. Rose knew she probably shouldn’t, but she pursued.

“And you keep your trash near your tool kit?”

He spun on her, too fast and too close. “I did no such thing.”

“It’s okay,” Rose said, shaking her head slightly. “Maybe one day you’ll trust me enough to tell me the truth.”

There was no way he’d just had it there because he’d forgotten to throw it away. She didn’t believe that for a second. Or, she hadn’t believed it until he nonchalantly said:

“I’ll send it to the trash compactor directly.”

“No!” Rose said, reaching out her hand to wrap around his wrist. The contact, small though it was, sent shockwaves through her entire body. “I mean...please. Please don’t.”

Hux’s eyes traveled from her eyes down to the place where her skin met his. His shirt had ridden up away from the lip of his glove, so for the first time, she was actually touching him. He was still staring at their connection when he licked his lips and muttered, so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.

“Will it...Will it make you happy? Having this thing?”

“It would be a start,” Rose conceded.

She held her breath in the silence that followed.

“Very well, then. You may keep it.” Then, Hux offered her the droid, which she took greedily, afraid he might try to snatch it away again. The loss of heat from their touch almost made her shiver. That cold didn’t last long, though, because soon, she felt the tips of gloved fingers brush across her cheeks, pulling her gaze back up to him. His expression was unreadable. “But if we are making requests...I would ask that you join me for dinner tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there,” she promised.

After all, she couldn’t fix a broken thing if she didn’t spend any time with it, could she?

For a long moment, the two of them stood there, trapped in that moment. It was only when the air recycler kicked on and its quiet rushing knocked Rose out of her trance, that she pulled away from his gloved touch. She placed the mouse droid on the unoccupied bedside table, trying not to think of the massive bed that now stretched between them. Hux didn’t say anything for a long, long time. Too long.

“What do we do now?” Rose asked, trying to keep her tone light as she could possibly manage. “Now that you have me in your inescapable clutches, what are your big plans for me, General?”

“I have a plan,” Hux said, practically choking the words.

“Of course you do. I’m waiting to hear it.”

“It’s…” He hesitated. His eyes flickered to the time piece on his bedside unit. “A plan that you should be well rested for. The refresher is just through that door. I’ll see you in bed when you are finished.”

Rose bristled at being ordered around, but then, she glanced down at her hands, which were thoroughly covered in grease stains. She collected a set of pajamas from the clothing allowance that had been delivered earlier today, cleaned herself thoroughly in the refresher - relishing every second of the hot water against her skin - and eventually, returned to the bedroom.

Where General Hux was sitting back in bed, a tight, grey thermal shirt covering his lean, hard torso. The bedclothes covered his bottom half, but she could only assume, from what little she knew about him, that he was not the kind of man to sleep half-nude. She swallowed hard and crossed her arms over her own chest as she tried not to think about what Hux’s would feel like beneath her fingertips.

Her pajamas were much less revealing than his, a set of loose-fitting pants and a button-up tunic. They were easily the most comfortable thing she’d ever owned, and yet, their delicious feeling filled her with dread. Of course General Hux had access to the finest clothing and fabric in the galaxy. He’d destroyed half of the galaxy to get it.

Still, despite the fact that she was completely covered, she felt almost naked when his eyes met hers. When she realized, with absolute clarity, what it would mean to be sharing a bed with him. She paused at the foot of the bed.

“Oh.”

Hux asked, glancing up from his datapad. “What?”

“I guess I knew that we would share a bed sometimes, but I didn’t think- ”

“What?”

She’d thought that he would send her away. That she would sleep on the floor or in another room or maybe even spend her time in the brig when not serving him and his “research.” All of that, she could have endured if it meant finding her sister and earning her freedom. But sharing a bed with him every night? Sleeping beside him? It made her chest suddenly hot. She stared down at the floor. “I didn’t think you would want me all the time.”

“That is not a concern that should ever cross your mind.”

The words were as close to a purr as Rose had ever heard come out of the General’s mouth. And she assumed it was an invitation. Slowly, she began moving up the bed, closer and closer towards him, drawing one of her hands along his leg, hidden beneath the bedclothes, as she went.

Hux didn’t move when he spoke. Her hand rested at the base of his thigh, but his words stopped her. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

The General’s face was a mask. He reached over to the opposite side of the bed, where he pulled away the covers for her. “You have been through quite an ordeal,” he said, his voice guarded and careful. “You should rest.”

Rose waited for a sign that this was a trick. A game. Weird First Order foreplay where he would play the benevolent benefactor just before pinning her down and taking what he wanted. But when he reached down and firmly, but gently, removed her hand from his leg, she knew that this wasn’t a trick.

As she took her place under the covers beside him, the stretch of bed separating them felt wider than a hyperspace lane. She’d been brought here to show him kind touch, to help him understand what love felt like. How was she supposed to do that if he didn’t let her touch him?

Not that she wanted to touch him. No. The confusing feelings she got every time she looked at him or existed in his same space were just...they were just symptoms of what she was trying to do. They were just her body trying to help her get through this. Nothing more.

As she settled herself into the unbelievably soft bed - a monitor on the side told her she could adjust the settings, and that her softness was at a 32.481, while Hux’s was at a hardness variation of 98.94 - she laid on her side and watched as he turned off the overhead lights, instructed the bedside timepiece to set his alarm for “the usual time” and then...immediately go back to reading his datapad.

Rose furrowed her brow.

“Aren’t you going to rest?”

Hux tapped the next page on his pad, pointedly not looking at her. “I never sleep this early.”

“Not if you keep looking at that datapad like that, you won’t.”

Was it her imagination, some trick of the dark light in here, or did his cheek twitch at that? “Are you always this talkative when you go to bed?”

“I can’t sleep with you sitting up like that,” Rose said. “It’s making me nervous.”

The man beside her hesitated. She held her breath as she waited for him. Maybe if she could pull him closer to her, make him feel her against him, then maybe he could speed this whole process along. Maybe she could make herself irresistible.

Heat rushed between her legs as she thought of feeling him against her.

After a moment and a long sigh, Hux adjusted himself, moving lower down beneath the thick bedclothes until he was almost at her eyeline in the bed.

“Is that better?”

“A little. It’s just…”

“Just what?”

It’s just that I can’t touch you when you’re so far you might as well be in another star system. And when that data pade is between us.

“You’re pretty far away. And is it always this cold in here?”

“Cold temperatures keep my soldiers and officers operating at peak efficiency.”

Rose couldn’t resist snarking out, “Cold like your heart. I get it.”

That must have gotten under his skin, because soon enough, he moved close enough that she could feel his body heat, if not his body. He put the pad beneath his pillow, almost certainly planning to return to it after she fell asleep.

“There,” he said, his voice tight. She couldn’t see him in the darkness. “Satisfied?”

She smirked. “I thought the whole point of this was that you were supposed to be satisfied.”

“Most women would cower to share a bed with the General of the Supreme Leader’s flagship. You lay beside him and think you can tease him.”

“Would you rather I cower? Beg and plead for you to let me go?”

He hesitated. His voice was as quiet as the darkness around them. “I should command respect. Awe. I will not be made a fool of.”

This time, it was Rose’s turn to hesitate. “I don’t think you’re a fool.”

“And I don’t want to frighten you,” he said, his voice soft. Uncertain. Maybe it was only now, under the cover of darkness, that he could be truly honest with her. “I know I should. But I don’t want to.”

In that moment, Rose abandoned all plans at her seduction. Maybe for tonight, just one night, she could wait.

Beneath the covers, she could feel his hand move towards hers, then stop very suddenly. He spoke again. “As for the droid...I occasionally have a difficult time sleeping. Sometimes, trying to fix the droid helps me relax. But I gave up on actually salvaging the thing a long time ago.”

“Why?” Rose asked.

Just at that moment, bare fingers brushed against her own in the most timid, softest of touches. Then, his hand retreated.

“Some things can never be fixed, Miss Tico.”

As Rose drifted off to sleep, she could think of nothing else but her silent, unspoken reply. I don’t believe that. Everything can be fixed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! I hope you all like it. And don’t worry - Millicent makes her appearance soon!


	4. Chapter Four

Hux woke strangely. And that strangeness, in and of itself, was strange. Every morning since he’d been a cadet, he’d woke up in a tangle of cold sheets to the shrill sound of an alarm droid, waking him at the same hour it always did. Long ago, he’d stopped needing the droid at all. His natural clock woke him up reliably now, but he hadn’t been able to break the habit of carefully setting his alarm before bed every night. 

He was used to being asleep one moment, then awake and on his feet the next. There was no place in between for him, no quiet sailing back to reality as consciousness tugged him from dreams. 

At least, there hadn’t been. Not until today. 

Today, his awareness came slowly. Piece by piece. First, there was the scent. Soft, like soap. Real soap, not the kind that came out of a First Order standard-issue refresher kit. Then, there was the sound. Soft breaths - in and out, steady as the whirring of a ship’s recently tuned pod-fan - at two different pitches, marrying in a quiet symphony of sound. His breath. And someone else’s. Warmth crept up all around him next, wrapping him up in its embrace like a sun beam peaking through the darkness after a storm on Arkanis. 

But it was the last realization that brought him fully into consciousness. At first, he’d been almost content just to slide through the sensations and sounds, but when he realized that there was something to feel as well, he snapped awake. There was a waist beneath his fingers. Fabric had ridden up, and somehow, his bare hands were now resting against skin. Soft and supple and thoroughly, thoroughly touchable. 

At first, he froze. His entire body electrified at the feeling of her, sending so many conflicting instructions to every part of him that he couldn’t move, even if he’d wanted to. What did one _do_ in a scenario like this? He hadn’t anticipated slipping so easily into such a position in his sleep. Even worse, he hadn’t anticipated how right it would feel for her to be there, for her to nestle into the valleys of his body as though she belonged there. 

It was true what he’d told her. He couldn’t think of a time when someone had touched him with kindness. Gently. He knew the stings of slaps and the brutalities of war and the might of men with bigger fists than his. 

...Was _this_ what he’d been missing? This simple rapture? The emptiness inside of his heart throbbed at the thought.

Muscle by muscle, he gave his body permission to relax. She was asleep. She wouldn’t see his weakness, wouldn’t know that he had developed a sudden, consuming soft spot for her touch. Surely, he could enjoy this one, stolen moment of her contact, of her warmth, of her peaceful, soft presence against his own. 

Then, he realized what he was doing. His breath hitched, breaking the perfect synchronicity they’d shared, and he wrenched his hand away, not caring if he woke her. He just needed to get out. Needed to begin his morning. Needed to get away from her scent and her sweet skin and the ion storm she’d started inside of him. 

Rushing into the refresher on unsteady feet, he swept into his morning routine as quietly as possible. He hadn’t worried about waking her a moment ago, but her soft, almost whispered sleep sounds reminded him that rousing her would introduce an entirely new set of complications. What if she wanted to speak to him, and her voice was still hitched with slumber in a way that made his palms sweat? What if she looked at him, her eyes dewy and soft, and smiled at him like she meant it? 

What if he looked at her, tangled in the sheets, and wanted nothing more than to join her there? 

No. It was unacceptable. He couldn’t allow himself to grow attached.He’d brought her here because he wanted to know what it felt like for someone else to feel for him, _not_ the other way around. In a rush of precise movements, he readied himself to uniform perfection, and moved to creep out of his quarters before she could tempt him any further. 

“General?”

Hux froze in the darkness of his bedsuite. Her voice was groggy, slurred slightly with sleep, and it tugged at the empty space where his heart should have been.

“Yes?”

A note of concealed terror colored the tremor in her tone. His hand immediately went to his sidearm, the motion of a protective instinct he hadn’t realized he had. She whispered, “I think there’s something in here. With us.” 

His eyes scanned the darkness, but after coming from the blazing white lights of the refresher, he couldn’t see anything. No beings. No signs of distress. “Something?”

“I heard a noise. Not mechanical. I would have known if it was mechanical.” 

With that, all of the fear gripping Hux washed out of him. His hand returned to his gloves, which he tugged tighter as he tried to swallow the pull on his lips. 

“I believe you’ve heard Millicent.” 

Rose’s voice lost its terror, but not that slightly biting humor of hers. “Millicent? Is she the last woman you locked up in here?”

“No. She’s my cat. Don’t worry. She shouldn’t bother you.” 

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Millicent wasn’t the most gracious of hosts, even with Hux, who had her since she was little more than a kitten-sized ball of fur. But for now, she seemed content - just as she had been last night when Rose had been here alone - to hide in the shadows under the bed. Rose didn’t seem so sure. 

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

What was this feeling in his chest? This lightness at the edges of his lips that threatened to pull them upward? He didn’t know. But he was certain it was dangerous. 

“As long as you don’t try to touch her ears, you should live to see another day.”

* * *

Later, up on the bridge, Hux struggled to keep his mind on troop movements and requisition orders. His hand still burned from where he’d touched Rose’s skin, forcing him to tug on the end of his glove over and over again, as if that could somehow erase the sensation, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her fear over Millicent or the feelings her small voice reaching out to him in the darkness evoked in him. 

Then, it dawned on him. She trusted him. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she hadn’t wanted to face the darkness or the creature lurking in it alone. She wanted to face the danger with Hux. 

Heat pooled at the base of his neck at that thought, something that Dopheld Mitaka, who’d just arrived for his shift, noticed. 

“General. You’re early. Is everything quite alright?”

“Is there any reason it shouldn’t be alright?”

“No, of course not, sir.” A pause. Hux knew where this was going, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. It wasn’t uncommon for men of his stature to acquire mistresses, but _he’d_ certainly never done it before. He couldn’t imagine how his inferiors would react. He didn’t even know how he _wanted_ them to react. Mitaka stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him as they stared out over the sea of stars around the ship. “I only wondered how Miss Tico was faring.” 

“Then ask about her. Not about me,” Hux said, if only to buy himself more time.   
  
“Well, then...How _is_ she doing?”

Right then and there, Hux decided that this wasn’t appropriate talk for the bridge of a Star Destroyer. Talking about Rose with anyone other than the voice inside of his own head was dangerous; he wouldn’t let anyone suspect he’d started to...horror of horrors... _feel_. 

“It’s none of your concern,” he said, too sharply. Mitaka nodded once, then proceeded to move towards his station. Hux hesitated, then lowered his voice to ensure that no one could overhear them. “But...if you should be so inclined, perhaps you could find her some engineering works to occupy herself. She has a keen mind. I shouldn’t want it to go to waste.” 

“Very good, sir.” 

Satisfied that he’d gotten through his interaction relatively unscathed and with his personal thoughts and feelings about the woman in his bed protected from outside scrutiny, Hux stalked towards his Ready Room. “I have my conference with The Supreme Leader today. See to it that I am not disturbed.” 

When he shut the door to the bridge, he found that it was not so easy to shut the door on his emotions. 

* * *

That conference did not go as well as Hux had been hoping. The Supreme Leader was not pleased with his pet Knight - Kylo Ren - and had taken his frustrations out on him. Rebellious systems were slipping through their fingers at the edges of controlled space. The Supreme Leader needed results, results that 

In some strange ways, as the particles of air tightened around his limbs and threw him around, knocking him against metal and alloy sheeting alike, Hux was relieved. This was simple. Understandable. Violence was a language he could speak and hear. It was so unlike what he’d shared with Rose. So confusing and out of place and desirable, but forbidden. 

This morning, he’d been a haze of storm clouds. Now, as he walked through the halls of The Finalizer with a slight limp and an aching body that cried out for relief, everything was clear. He’d wronged The Supreme Leader. He wasn’t strong enough. He needed to do better. To be better. To not fail. 

That aching spot where his heart should have been was ready to close up. But when the turbolift arrived at the floor of his quarters, he spotted a familiar silhouette crammed into a nearby corner. A heavy bag was slung over one shoulder and something else shadowed her other shoulder, but Hux was too busy scanning her face to think of anything else. 

She looked distressed. Uncomfortable. And, at the sight of her, so did he. He fought to focus on his bruising, to hold on to the clarity, but she made it impossible. 

“Miss Tico. What are you doing out here?”

“I…” She blinked up at him, and tightened the grip on the bag over her shoulder. “What are you doing out here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work for your glorious First Order?”

Hux blinked as he stepped forward and realized it wasn’t just a shadow on her shoulder. It was _orange_. And purring quite contentedly. “Is that Millicent?”

Rose shrugged and reached up to scratch the animal’s ears. The last time Hux had even _tried_ that, he’d been in the med bay for eighteen stitches, but with Rose, she seemed happy. Content. “She wanted to come with me.”   
  
“Come with you where?”

  
He eyed the bag on her shoulder with sinking certainty. He should have known she would try to leave him; after all, he _was_ as weak and pathetic as The Supreme Leader had said. As his father had said. As everyone believed him to be. Why would she want to stay with him, even with all he had to offer her? 

“I don’t know.” With a flick of her wrist, Rose opened the small holo-map he’d instructed the crew to include with her new wardrobe. It glowed green, dotted with red restricted areas for senior staff only. “I just...you gave me the map of open areas, but I didn’t know…” Her voice failed her, and her eyes refused to meet his, even as she visibly swallowed back her fear. “...didn’t know if it was some kind of trick.”   
  
“You can go anywhere the map glows green. You aren’t a prisoner here. You are an extension of their General and my crew will not -” Hux’s ranting paused when he remembered the bag. He’d thought it was for running away. If not... “What’s that in your hands?”

“This?” Strangely enough, Rose’s eyes lit up with that familiar spark he sometimes caught when she let her guard down. Loosing the fabric from her shoulder, she dropped it to the ground with a metallic _thud_. The bag puddled to the ground, leaving a small ID8 droid on its side like a wounded soldier. Millicent, upset at the movement, dropped to the floor from Rose’s shoulder to inspect the thing. “Oh, it’s just..his wheel wasn’t spinning right and his communication component was malfunctioning.” 

As if to prove the point, Rose flipped its command switch, and a mutated, craggy automation spoke from the body of the small thing. 

_“For the glory of the First Order - Glory of the First Order - Gory of the First Order…Boring of the First Order...”_

“See? I thought I would take him home and fix him. Then, let him loose back in the wild.” 

She reshouldered the bag with something like a smile, and Hux’s warring emotions came flooding right back to him. He tried to maintain his distance, tried not to let her see that he _liked_ the way her eyes lit up when she talked about fixing something.

  
After all, it was weakness, wasn’t it? Inefficient. His father, the Supreme Leader, anyone in command would have taken the droid from her that instant and sent it to be ripped apart into scrap metal. 

Hux’s bruises sang as he reached for the droid’s bag. 

  
“I’ve told you. We have an entire engineering corps on this vessel that can fix-”

“Not the way that I can.” 

Rose stepped back, tightening her grip. She was not going to let him have it. And truth be told? He didn’t want it. Not when he saw how important it was to her. The fresh marks from The Supreme Leader should have reminded him to be more careful, to be more disciplined, and to expect that discipline from everyone in his orbit. But the weak parts of Hux that no one could touch knew how rewarding fixing broken things could be. 

Still, he couldn’t let her see that. It was his weakness to bare, and his alone. “If you wish to throw your time away on useless droids, then I will not stop you. Shall we return home? We should prepare for supper in the Officer’s Mess.”

No sooner had he said it than a flicker of disappointment passed through Rose’s eyes. She may not have been ready to brave the halls of The Finalizer alone, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be cooped up in his quarters all by herself. 

Hux straightened himself to his full height and refused to look at her until the very last second. “But I could take you on a tour tomorrow...if you’d like?” 

The tension in her shoulders slackened. “Yeah. I would like that.” 

Hux didn’t want to think about how those few words made the bruises hurt less. 

* * *

Back in his quarters - their quarters now, he realized - she’d rushed into the refresher to get ready, leaving him to change into a fresh uniform in his bedsuite. He tried not to think about the way Millicent lingered by the refresher door, waiting for Rose to rejoin them, just as he tried not to think about his old Droid, which now happily beeped and booped around the broken one Rose had brought in for repairs. 

The fragments of his shattered life were all beginning to build and weave around her. That hadn’t been part of the plan. Just like it hadn’t been part of the plan for his heart to race at the thought of her naked form, just beyond the refresher door, slipping out of her clothes. 

Pulling down a small reflector screen he often used to inspect his uniforms in the morning, he distracted himself by inspecting the fresh smattering of bruises from this afternoon’s encounter with The Supreme Leader. Some of them already purpled, and now that he was in better light, he could see that the one near his temple would undoubtedly be showing by the time he sat down for dinner tonight. 

Shaking fingers reached up to trace the bruise, but he stopped when a small, tight voice behind him drew his attention. 

“You’re hurt.” 

“I beg your pardon?”

Spinning on his heels, Hux found Rose standing in the refresher door, clad in a light underdress and clearly only halfway through preparations for dinner. She stared at him, slack-jawed and… Was that worry he saw on her face? Closing the space between them, she ghosted her hands over the exposed skin. With his undershirt on, he wasn’t completely naked, but under her scrutiny, he might as well have been.

“Did you fall or something? You could probably see that bruise from across a starfield. Without a scope.” 

“It’s nothing,” Hux said, reaching for his nearby uniform shirt. He didn’t want her to touch him again, not now, not when everything was so fresh. Not just the bruises, but the memory of the way she felt in his arms this morning. “A minor workplace injury. A common occurrence in times of war.” 

“Funny. I didn’t hear any space battles going on today,” Rose said, with that almost invisible smile of hers. She went into the refresher for a moment, but not before calling out: “Go on. Sit down on the bed.” 

Hux stiffened. “Don’t presume to give me orders.”   
  
“Don’t presume that I’m going to sit here and do nothing while you wince in pain all night.” 

“What could you possibly - ”

But that was the moment when she returned from the refresher holding a bottle he didn’t quite recognize. 

  
“My sister and I were always getting into scrapes when we were younger. And I can’t say that the bordello where you found me was the safest place, either. I’ve gotten pretty good at making this stuff. It should have those bruises gone very soon.” She paused, directly in front of him, so that the swell of her breasts was even with his eyeline. He tried not to stare, but his body reacted before he could stop himself. A wave of want took hold of him, stronger than any injury. Rose either didn’t notice or didn’t care to. She moved behind him, towards the bed. “Your tunic will need to come off, too.” 

He didn’t make a habit of letting anyone see him without his clothes on. His uniform was a sign of strength, of authority. Without it, he was just the slip of a boy his father always hated. Usually, when it came to these sorts of injuries, he didn’t even bother healing them artificially. Every injury was a reminder of his failure, a call to action to do better. This time, though, he didn’t argue. 

He let Miss Rose Tico’s small fingers grip the bottom hem of his undershirt and pull it over his head, leaving him exposed to her. Wearing nothing above his belt but his leather gloves.

Immediately, chills broke out across his shoulder blades. His nipples hardened. The cold air forced his body to attention, and every inch of his body paid attention to her touch. Settling in behind him on the bed, Rose began to rub the homemade tincture into his skin. 

Gentle. Almost reverent. Taking care not to agitate his bruises anymore than they already were, she let the fragrant mixture settle between the contact of her hands and his flesh. 

Hux cleared his throat. Distraction. He needed a distraction. Needed to not think about how good this felt. About how he wanted to turn, capture her lips with his, and see just where else her hands could do magic like this. 

“There are medical droids for this kind of thing, you know.” 

“Just let me be useful. That’s what you brought me here for, isn’t it?”

Hux hesitated. With that one question, the energy drained from him. Of course. She wasn’t doing this because she really cared about him. She wasn’t worried for his sake or wondering after the health of a person she felt for. She was using this as an opportunity. A chance to do what she’d been brought here for. To seduce him, to make him feel loved, and run away from him as fast as a shuttle could take her. “...Yes.” 

“Then just relax. I promise you, there isn’t a med droid out there that can do this.” 

Bitterness filled his mouth as her hands moved lower down his back, teasing his fantasies. It didn’t _feel_ like this was fake. Her hands were gentle and kind, the way touch had never before felt for him. He wanted her. Wanted more. Wanted to feel that soft and warm touch _everywhere_. Wanted her to teach him how to give it back to her as sweetly as she gave it to him. 

But no matter how it felt, he knew the truth. It was fake. A game of play-acting she was doing to win her freedom. Knowing that this had, all along, been his idea didn’t make the truth of it hurt any less. 

“You _are_ very good,” he said, struggling to keep his cock from twitching as her breath began to caress the smooth juncture where his neck met his shoulder. 

“At what?”

“Pretending not to hate me.” 

Rose’s hands hesitated as they reached his hips. If she moved an inch forward, she’d be pressing her breasts against her back and her hands would be close enough to rub the hard, wet tip of him. She didn’t move. For a moment, she didn’t even breathe. Then, she continued. 

“Like I said. I like fixing things. And the way I see it, you need more fixing than most.”

That’s when her fingers stopped their therapeutic purpose and took on a wandering posture. The pads of her fingertips drew constellations, familiar comet blasts of scar tissue that criss-crossed all along his torso. Gifts from his father. Constant reminders of Hux’s weakness and failings.   
  
“I answer to the most powerful man in the Galaxy. The Supreme Leader is going to save The Galaxy, if only they’d let him. When he is disappointed…” 

“He treats you the way he treats everyone else. He tries to destroy you.”

Rose sounded angry. Angry on his behalf? Angry that someone had hurt him? It couldn’t be. Impossible. 

“He is only disciplining me. Trying to mold me into something stronger. Greater.” 

“If he goes about this much longer, I don’t think there will be much left of you _to_ mold.” 

Silence, then. Stillness. Neither of them moved or spoke. But then, slowly, leaving a trail of heat in her wake, Rose ghosted one of her hands around him, and up his chest, until it rested just over the empty space where his heart should have been. 

Her lips were at his ear now. “Is this why you really hired me? Because of this? This is what you meant when you said you hadn’t ever felt-” 

Hux tried to leave, but she refused to let him go. Not without a fight. He couldn’t hurt her, so he let the cold malice in his voice do that for him. “That’s quite enough.” 

“Because it seems to me that you brought me here, locked me away from the rest of the galaxy, and don’t have the first idea how to get what you want. Why did you even bring me here if _this_ is how you think people are supposed to treat one another?”

“Release me.”

“Why am I here, General Hux? Why am I here if you don’t even want me?”

He didn’t know what happened then, what caused it, but something inside of Armitage Hux broke at those words. Before he could control himself, he moved with all of the grace and strength of his training, turning quickly to grip her wrists and pin her back on the bed. 

Their faces were inches apart now. Their heavy breathing coming in timed pants that echoed the shock they both felt. Hux’s entire body covered hers now, and he pressed his hardness into the space between her legs, desperate for her to feel the way that her presence in his life was tearing him apart. 

All his life, he’d been told that love, that want, that _need_ was weakness. He’d thought he would be safe from all of it with her. That she could give him the rush without ever feeding him the drug. But there he was. Desperate for a fix of something he hadn’t even tasted yet. 

“Miss Tico. I can assure you it isn’t for lack of wanting.” He pressed against her, his need evident against her. Surely, she could feel his heart beating against her breast. He, at least, could certainly feel the way her nipples hardened against him. The way her back arched involuntarily when he moved against her. “Can you feel that?”

Rose’s lips were pink and ready beneath his own. Her eyes searched his. Challenged him. He didn’t miss the way she glanced down at his lips, too. “Then why don’t you just give in? Why don’t you do what you want and let me go?”

“Because it isn’t that I don’t want you,” he said, releasing her and reaching for his uniform jacket. “It’s that I don’t know _how_ to want you without destroying myself.” 

Before either of them could say another word, Hux left. The ion storm within him raged on. 

* * *

That night, he took an extra shift on the bridge and informed the droids to have a fine meal prepared and brought to Miss Tico in his absence. But when he returned, he found her and Millicent, asleep in their bed - the food untouched, and his side of the bed still pristinely made up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! I am so sorry about the delay. If you follow me on twitter, you'll know the reason, but for those who don't, I got stuck in a foreign country due to the covid-19 lockdowns, so writing has been really, really hard during this transition! But now, I'm in a stable living situation, have everything sorted with remote working, and I think my brain is working again!
> 
> Thank you all SO MUCH for your patience and all of the love you've shown this story so far! I am so excited to keep telling this story! I'm hoping to get new chapters up every Sunday or Monday! Let me know what you think about this chapter and what you're hoping to see in the next one!


	5. Chapter Five

It hadn’t been easy for Rose to fall asleep that night. Once he’d left, a steward droid had brought her a tray overflowing with food, but she’d done little more than pick at it and pass bits of meat down to the mewling cat who cuddled into her side. Then, when she found she couldn’t stare at the door any longer, couldn’t wait any longer for him to come back, she managed to fall into something like sleep. Only restless and terrifying. 

In her dream, she was up at the top of Blast Canyon, a craggy rock formation where the elders always warned the children of her village never to go. It was dangerous. The path narrow and precarious. One wrong movement, and the rocks would fall out from beneath you, welcoming you to a painful, final end. 

Her sister was there, too, but she wasn’t cautiously peering over the edge or begging her to go back down the mountain to safety as fast as she could. Instead, she was dancing on the edge. The Seuk. The ancient dance of joy, of celebration. Paige’s arm’s and legs moved wildly in syncopated time to unheard music, that familiar rhythm and the sound of her laughter almost made Rose want to run to the edge and join her. 

Then, it happened. The rocks gave out, just like the elders had said. Without thinking, Rose dove after her, reaching out and catching her hand just in time.  _ I’ve got you _ , she said.  _ I won’t let you go _ . Paige didn’t look concerned at her plight, dangling over the edge of a fall that would surely kill her. Instead, she was peaceful. Serene. Ready. 

Rose tried to pull her up, but every time she moved, the rocks beneath  _ her _ started to give out, too. Then, they fell completely, sending her and her sister cratering towards the ravine far below. 

...But the  _ crash _ of her body against the rock didn’t come. Instead, a warm hand reached out and clenched her own, holding her fast, suspended in mid-air with her sister still dangling. She looked up.

The General Armitage Hux held her, his eyes desperate and his grip certain.  _ Don’t worry. I’ve got you. _

Rose’s heart slammed against her chest. Below her, her sister fought against her hold, begging to be let go, to fall, to drop into the unknown. Above her, Hux tried to pull her back onto firm, known ground. 

She was caught between them. And just when she thought she would make a decision, she woke up. 

After the nightmare, sleep came and went in fits and starts that, eventually, came to an end when the atmospherics alerted her that it was morning, flooding the room with artificial sunlight. When she finally managed to tear her eyes open and face the day, two things became very clear. 

One, Millicent was  _ not _ happy, hissing and throwing a fit at her side. And two, there was a man looming over her bed. 

“I beg your pardon. Don’t be frightened!” 

_ General Hux. _ It wasn’t just any man. It was the man who’d stormed out of the room last night when she’d tried to do what he was paying her to do. The man who hadn’t come back to bed last night. Now, he stood over her, a silver-covered tray in his hands and a worry in his eyes. Rose’s hand gripped her chest, trying to still her heart.    
  
“What are you doing here?”

Instead of answering her, Hux glowered at the hissing cat. “Quiet, you little traitor.” 

“Don’t talk to Millie that way.” 

Without taking her gaze away from Hux, Rose’s hand floated to the space between Millicent’s ears, where she rubbed the animal until she lowered her hackles and groaned her compliance. The day before, Rose had been deathly afraid of the creature, but after a few hours of her quiet approaches and purrs, Rose realized two things. One, Millicent could  _ definitely _ sense her fear. And two, Hux keeping a cat meant that he couldn’t be entirely bad. She’d already suspected there was a broken, soft man behind the First Order exterior, but when the orange cat took the liberty of curling up in her lap during an intense mid-morning droid engineering session, she knew it for sure. The cat was proof that somewhere, deep down, there was an Armitage Hux who cared for something other than himself and The First Order.

The only problem? What to do with that information. During their encounter the night before with the Cliragel she’d had stashed away in her meager possessions from the Bordello, she’d felt that pull again. Not just to finish the job she’d been hired to do, but to be close to him. To dig deeper and try to find evidence of the man she wanted him to be. But how could she do that when he ran at the first signs of intimacy? When he didn’t know how to be himself? 

Did he even know who he was? Was he even capable of seeing what she saw? Rose didn’t have the first clue. What she did have was a slightly rumpled redhead standing over their head, holding a silver tray, which he uncapped with a flourished push of a button, revealing a chrome-plated teapot, a matching cup, and a plate of fresh, toasted bread, slathered in Westhills Butter and oi-oi jam. Rose’s stomach growled at the sight of the bounty. 

The General swallowed hard. 

“I thought you might want some tea. And your first meal.” 

  
With awkward, jerky movements, he set the tray down in her lap, then immediately backed away. Was he...nervous? Rose watched him carefully, letting her gaze drift between him and the plate before her. It was clear, from the cuts of the bread to the uneven slathering of toppings, that this had been done by human hands. 

He’d made her breakfast. 

“What?” Rose asked, snorting sardonically to cover up the fact that she was, really, quite touched. No one had ever made her breakfast in bed. “Were all of the steward droids busy?”

“I thought we might talk.” 

“Talk,” Rose repeated, her mouth still half-full of bread and jam. She bit back the urge to moan. Simple as the meal might have been, it was delicious. 

As soon as the word came out, as if she had given him permission, the General began pacing back and forth in the small space beside the bed, his steps even and his turns made with the utmost military precision. Rose might have laughed, if his flight last night and the nightmare that followed weren’t still fresh in her mind. 

“I think perhaps this experiment of mine might be more difficult than I originally thought. You have been trying your best to hold up your end of the bargain we struck, but I have been -”

“A Kleex that won’t come out of his shell?”

“I was going to say difficult, but your illustration paints quite a clear picture.” 

It didn’t escape her attention that he stubbornly refused to admit that she was right or better about anything, but progress was progress. And if she wanted to make any more of it, then she wasn’t going to push her luck. Besides, she could tell that he was coming around. It was in the little things, the tiny cracks in his perfect facade. The slightly rumpled collar of his uniform. The loose strand of otherwise perfectly coifed hair. The pacing. 

But then, he stopped, and faced her fully. She swallowed back the bite of toast in her mouth. Her heart stopped in her chest as his unwavering gaze settled on her. 

“If you will stay, I will endeavor to be a better test subject.” 

Rose started at that. “I have a choice?”

For his part, Hux’s jaw tightened. “I promised you comfort and safety. I don’t believe I’ve held up my end of the bargain.” 

For a moment, Rose considered that. She could get out. She could leave right now and never see Armitage Hux again. She could take the wealth and access he’d promised her and run to the other side of the galaxy in search of her sister. 

“Might be better for you, anyway,” she said, not meeting his gaze. “You could have any girl in the galaxy.” 

“I only wanted you.” 

The words were so quiet, so sincere, that for a moment, she thought she’d imagined them. But when he cleared his throat, she knew he’d said them out loud. Her chest tightened, and Hux continued, “I’ll leave you to make your decision, then.” 

Turning on his heel, the General moved towards the door to the bedsuite, and Rose’s mind filled with one thought. Her nightmare. In her nightmare, the only thing keeping her and Rose safe...had been Hux. 

Besides, the thought of leaving him...she didn’t want to say it hurt. But it wasn’t right. Something inside of her knew that. 

“Wait,” she called. 

Hux paused in the doorway, but did not turn. “Yes?”

“You promised me a tour of the ship.” 

A moment passed, but with him turned away from her, it was impossible to gauge his reaction. But when he finally responded, his voice was lighter than she’d ever heard it. “So I did. Would a tour after your meal suit you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Millicent and I had a very big day planned.” 

  
Another pause. Then, a small huff. “That was a joke. You are joking with me.” 

“Don’t worry. One day, I’ll figure out a way to make you laugh.” 

  
He was out of the room before she realized that she’d said  _ one day _ . As in...she was already, without consciously thinking about it, promising to be here for awhile. 

* * *

The tour of  _ The Finalizer _ hadn’t been, at all, what she’d expected. Or rather, the ship had been exactly what she’d expected - a dizzying array of corridors and chambers, of darkness and stoic-faced soldiers. It was her tour guide who surprised her. Despite the fact that he tried to keep up an air of impartiality, of cold, detachment, when she walked by his side, she was subject to his every sudden start and stop, to every breathless explanation of a ship’s feature or of a brilliant design flaw he’d managed to patch up during his time as General. 

He was proud of this ship. And he wanted her, whether he knew it or not, to be proud of him, too. It was strange, to be here with him like this. So normal. Like they were actually on some kind of real, honest date, rather than...Well, whatever it was that they were doing together. 

When, finally, they came to what she’d thought would be the end of their tour - the great Promenade overlooking the General Recreation Hall - they gazed down at the off-duty soldiers playing cards and drinking Synth. 

“So,” Hux said, clearing his throat. “What do you think?”

“What do  _ I _ think?” 

“You obviously are quite skilled in engineering matters. I would be interested in an outside perspective on my ship.” 

It  _ was _ an engineering marvel. One that had been turned on countless star systems. Rose would never be able to forget that. “It’s too dark. And everyone here is afraid of you.” 

“I mean mechanically. Isn’t it a wonder?”

Rose moved her gaze from a group of soldiers playing Sabbac, and instead chose to stare at her knuckles, which turned white as she gripped the railing of the promenade. How could a man with a pet cat and a flair for making breakfast serve an empire like this? 

Her mind flashed back to the scars and fresh bruises on his back. That could explain it. 

“It’s a fantastic feat of engineering,” Rose said, an unbidden note of bitterness entering her tone. “Imagine how many refugees you could house on a ship like this.” 

Beside her, Hux coughed, as if he were embarrassed by what he was about to say. “Yes. I suggested deploying an outdated fleet for just such a purpose.” 

“And?” 

“And it was deemed an inefficient use of resources.” 

There was nothing to say to that, but she tucked the information away in the back of her mind for later, further inspection. 

Again, her mind wandered back to the nightmare. 

“Speaking of resources...Have you heard anything about my sister?”

“This morning, I dispatched three inquest agents to begin their search. I expect a full report from them at the end of the standard month.” 

“Thank you,” Rose said, her eyes wandering to his gloved hand, which had come to rest beside hers on the railing. So close. 

“It was our arrangement,” Hux said, as if that explained anything. 

“Still. Lots of men in your position would have locked me away in a dungeon somewhere. Taken advantage. But you haven’t. And I’m grateful.” 

“You should expect more from the galaxy than to  _ not _ be thrown in a dungeon.” 

When Rose looked up at him then, she couldn’t help but smile. Not her full face smile, but a expression of the way she felt inside. “Oh, I do. And I’m going to get it. But for now, this is enough. I’m a survivor. Like you said.” 

The muscles in Hux’s carefully composed face slipped slightly, and he opened his mouth for a full three count before he finally spoke. 

“There is one place I would like to show you. Generally, its access is restricted, but I am at liberty to show you. If you’d like.” 

“Yeah,” Rose said, surprised to find that she meant it. “I would like that.” 

* * *

Eventually, Rose found herself being led through a tall, paneled gateway that only opened with a secret access codex looped around Hux’s neck and kept beneath his uniform. 

What lay beyond nearly took her breath away. Not because it was so grand, but because it was so sparse. Great, black metal walls reached so tall that an entire unit of AT-ATs could have been housed inside, and the room’s length stretched out towards a grand viewport in the distance. The room’s only light came from the stars beyond that viewport, a host of red buttons that corresponded to access panels and command arrays, and lines of thin white lighting laid into the floors and ceiling. 

Hux, walking at a fast clip, moved towards the far end of the room, where a great seat - a throne, really - waited in front of the viewport. It was the throne, and not the stars beyond it, that drew the majority of Rose’s attention, even as Hux proudly prattled on about this most special of rooms. 

“This is the Grand Throne Room. There’s one on every ship, but I happen to think the one on  _ The Finalizer _ is quite spectacular. See, this viewport is well equipped for-”

That must have been when he turned around and saw her  _ sitting _ in the throne, testing it out for herself, because that’s when his voice abruptly died, and the silence it left was filled with the angry  _ tap, tap _ ,  _ tap _ of his boots. When he finally reappeared in front of the throne, she didn’t flinch, not even when he hissed: 

“You can’t sit there.” 

Rose agreed that she probably  _ shouldn’t  _ have been sitting there. The thing wasn’t very comfortable. But she stayed for exactly two reasons. One, because she’d never felt as strong and the First Order never felt as small, as when she was sitting there, in the Supreme Leader’s chair. And two, because she knew that playing this game by Hux’s rules would never get her anywhere. 

If she wanted to see more cracks in his walls, and if she wanted to see those walls eventually crumble, she had to be the earthquake. As the tips of his ears turned pink, she shrugged. 

“Why not?”

“The Supreme Leader is seated there.” 

“When?”

Hux spluttered at her insolence, but didn’t advance on her. “When he comes to inspect the ship. Or in the event  _ The Finalizer _ becomes his Flagship. When-” 

Rose feigned surprise. “Oh. Are you expecting him any time soon?”

“Things are done this way for a reason. The Galaxy needs order. It needs rules. It needs -”

“Special chairs for old men?”

“It’s a  _ throne.  _ And you must-”

_ Must. _ Something about that word broke a piece of Rose’s heart.  _ Must _ was how the First Order ruled the Galaxy.  _ You must bow down to us _ .  _ Must _ destroyed her home. _ You must sacrifice your home for the glory of The First Order _ .  _ Must _ brought the General back to their quarters, trying to hide the bruises his leader had inflicted upon him.  _ You must obey _ . 

Rose was tired of it. She couldn’t save the whole galaxy. But she could start here. 

“General!” She practically shouted, waving her arms, but not daring to move an inch from her seat. He stopped, his jaw slightly slack. She continued. “It’s just a chair. It’s not going to destroy you. It’s not going to doom the whole galaxy. Just sit here.” 

Tension locked between them as they waged a silent war of wills. One that she won. Slowly, hesitantly, Hux’s polished boots moved up the handful of steps leading to the grand, wide, throne, and he moved to sit beside her upon it. The small breath of air between them crackled. 

“See? Isn’t that better?” 

“May I tell you something?” He asked, turning towards her, so close that their lips almost touched. His eyes were unreadable. “Something I’ve never told anyone?”

“Secrets? Careful, General. I may think you’re starting to like me.” 

He didn’t laugh at her joke. Instead, he traced the lines of her lips with his gaze, then settled back upon her eyes, staring deeply into them with the kind of hope and wonder and promise that didn’t match the declaration that followed. “One day,  _ I _ will be The Supreme Leader.” 

Rose’s stomach plummeted.  _ No. _ She didn’t want him to want that. And she wished she could go back to a time before he’d said it. 

There was still good in him now. She could see that. But...she could not imagine him keeping that goodness if this throne ever became his. Biting down on her lip, Rose tried to reach the man within him. Not the ambitious climber, desperate to save the Galaxy the only way he knew how. But the person he’d been desperately hiding. 

“You know. Why don’t you just focus on being who you are right now, General?”

Something flickered in his expression. A vulnerability she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Had anyone ever told him before that he was enough? A gloved finger reached up and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Perhaps, when we are alone like this, away from the ship’s staff and such, you could call me Armitage.” 

“Well. Armitage,” she said, enjoying the way the name rolled across her tongue. “I didn’t come here to be with the future Supreme Leader. I came here to be with you.” 

There it was again. The vulnerability. The want. Rose felt his hand still at her ear, and for a moment, the pull between them proved too strong. She moved in, her lips drawn to his, as his hand fanned out across her cheek.

“General?”

But just when their kiss seemed inevitable, the pneumatic door of the Throne Room opened, and Dopheld Mitaka, the man who’d escorted her to her chambers on her first day, stood at attention. Hux immediately rose to his feet, his cheeks pink but otherwise unrumpled. 

“Yes? What?”

Mitaka strode to close the distance between them. “The Supreme Leader has requested a meeting with you.”

“I’ll be there directly. Will you see Miss Tico to The Engineering Corps? And send someone to collect the droids in our quarters. She’ll be requiring a workshop to complete them.”

“Very good, sir.” 

“And wipe that smirk off of your face before I find a stormtrooper to do it for you.” 

He averted his eyes. “Understood, sir.” 

Caught in this whirlwind of conversation and revelations, Rose still sat atop the throne, looking down at Armitage’s slightly breathless form. Then, he looked up at her. 

“Miss Tico?”

“Yeah?”

He didn’t speak for a long moment.

“It was - I am…” He swallowed, and she almost hear the gears in that ginger head of his turning. He  _ wanted _ to say something kind. To tell her he’d enjoyed their time. But instead, his gaze flickered to Mitaka, who hovered over her shoulder, and he stiffened. “I will see you this evening.” 

Without another word, he left her. The cold dismissal should have hurt, maybe, but instead, it bounced off of Rose like a couple of space pebbles off the hull of this Cruiser. 

After all, what did she have to be sad about? She was winning this war against Armitage Hux. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all SO MUCH for your response to the last chapter. It was so overwhelming, so kind, and so thoughtful that I wrote this today! I hope you like it! 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	6. Chapter Six

When he left her then, in the throne room and in the care of Mitaka, Hux was almost certain it was the last time he’d ever see her. It had to be. The Supreme Leader had spies everywhere, lurking in the shadows and basking in the sunlight alike. It was the reason he’d never spoken his ambition to take his place someday aloud, the reason he’d never entrusted that information with anyone before. Certainly, somehow, the man had heard of his transgression, of his betrayal, and now he’d been summoned to pay the ultimate price. 

It was why, when he’d turned to tell Miss Tico goodbye, that he hadn’t been able to force the words out. If his suspicions were right and he was about to be executed for sedition, he’d wanted to say something more momentous. A proper farewell. The kind she deserved. Instead, he’d lied to her.  _ I’ll see you this evening,  _ he’d said, knowing full well that if The Supreme Leader had somehow heard his secret, he wouldn’t even live until this evening. 

What would he have said? Nothing would have been sufficient. Trying to explain to her how he felt, in that moment, when she looked at him as though she actually  _ saw _ him...Impossible. He didn’t even know how to describe it to himself.

She’d said that she wanted to be there with him. Armitage Hux. Not the future Supreme Leader. Not the General. Him. No one had ever said that before. No one had ever even implied that, without the cloak of The First Order, he alone would have been enough. 

It wasn’t much. But as he walked into the chamber where he took his meetings with his leader, he couldn’t find it in him to regret the decision to confess his greatest sin to her. Even if it killed him, perhaps it was worth it. Perhaps it was right that he’d go to his grave knowing that there was at least one person in this great galaxy who could care for him. 

When he arrived in the chamber, the flickering hologram of his master was already waiting. He immediately knelt, lowering his head, as the pneumatic doors hissed closed behind him. No turning back now. He swallowed hard, and used his years of practice in concealing his true emotions to do so now. 

“Supreme Leader,” he said, staring at one spot on the spotless black floor as if his life depended on it. 

“General Hux,” The Supreme Leader hissed. “I am most gratified that you cleared your schedule for me. I understand you have been...quite occupied of late.” 

Spies everywhere. Hux’s stomach turned. If word had already gotten back to Snoke of his time with Rose, then it was entirely possible he’d somehow heard his mutinous thoughts from the Throne Room.

“Never too occupied to bow to my leader,” Hux ground out. 

“Quiet your flattery. We have much to discuss. I assume you know what this is?”

With a wave of his hand, the Supreme Leader conjured up an image familiar to every child in the galaxy, but one especially familiar to Hux. A wave of chills rolled across the back of his neck. 

“The Death Star. Of course.” 

“You have one of the keenest minds in all of my fleet, General Hux. A mind for destruction. A single focus on saving the people of this wretched galaxy. But could even you build something better than this? More powerful?”

Hux swallowed, the lump in his throat painfully large now. His heart thundered in his ears. He was going to live. No one had told the Supreme Leader about his desires to one day take his place. But now, he was facing another insurmountable challenge. 

“More powerful than The Death Star?”

“This afternoon, a datapad will be delivered to you with all of the pertinent briefing materials. I am entrusting this project to you. Assemble your finest. Your best and brightest. And, should you succeed, you will be handsomely rewarded.” 

“With what?”

“With what you desire most.” 

For the briefest of moments, Hux’s mind flickered to thoughts of Miss Rose Tico. But then, Snoke continued and shattered the image. 

“The end of the war, of course. To bring even the most rebellious systems into the fold.” 

Yes. Of course. That was what Hux  _ really _ wanted, wasn’t it? To ensure that no child ever again suffered like he had, that the chaos and disorder of this universe could no longer harm anyone. Bringing order to this galaxy had always been his greatest ambition. And The Supreme Leader was giving him that chance. 

He should have been ecstatic. Or as close to it as he knew how to be. Instead, he felt strangely hollow. His mind filled with thoughts of Miss Tico, of the way her planet had been ravaged by their weapons. He thought of her questions regarding refugee resettlement. 

He wanted to bring peace and harmony to the galaxy. He’d never questioned the way he achieved that purpose before. But now, the thought of creating a planet-destroying weapon...it filled the back of his mouth with the taste of blood. Still, he nodded. 

“I will see it done, Supreme Leader.” 

“Good. There is one other matter to discuss.” 

“Yes?”

Snoke’s shadowy smile curved into something slightly more malicious. “For entrusting you with this project, I will require you to become a more...active member of The First Order. If you are to be the face of the Galaxy’s liberation, then you must be more visible. A true leader does not hide behind the Engineering Corps, no matter how important his work there may be.” 

  
“Your counsel is, of course, most wise,” Hux said, hating what this would mean. The politics part of his political aims had never been his strong suit. “I will endeavor to lead from the front lines, Supreme Leader.” 

From there, the conversation shifted to troop movements and The Supreme Leader’s opinions of various matters of State, but Hux’s mind wouldn’t stop its mechanical whirring. 

And...also...he wasn’t going to die today. Which meant, miracle of miracles, he could keep his promise to Miss Rose Tico. That thought quickened his steps towards the Engineering deck, but it wasn’t enough to wipe the heavy storm clouds from his mind. 

However, once he reached the Engineering Deck, with its workshop cages and all of the tech that one could ever dream of possessing, something else caught his attention...and dominated his thoughts. When he heard the voice of Dopheld Mitaka reaching above the din of drills and lasers, he ducked behind a pillar so he could eavesdrop. 

  
No. Not  _ eavesdrop _ . He was a General. This was his ship. He was merely...monitoring his subordinates. 

“...And The General?” Mitaka asked, his voice slightly muffled by the sound of a drill making contact with hot metal. Hux couldn’t imagine that he, who’d hardly made marks in engineering, would be doing anything of the sort. Rose must have already been hard at work. “What do you think of him?”

“He isn’t what I expected. Hand me that motivator coil, will you?”

A rustle. Then, Mitaka: “This?”

“No, the motivator coil.” 

“...This?”

“The thing that looks like a coil.” 

“Right. Of course.” Some rustling alerted Hux to the fact that Mitaka’s search finally proved successful. But then, there was a hesitation that faltered Mitaka’s politeness. “I’m afraid I will have to ask that you properly answer my question, though. In exchange.” 

Hux could almost hear the smirk in Rose’s voice. “Are all of you First Order guys this ruthless?”

“It’s the first thing we learn in Officer’s Training. But you...you think The General is ruthless?”

The breath in Hux’s lungs caught, refusing to move in or out. His pulse quickened.  _ Not what I’d expected _ had been a fine answer to Mitaka’s first inquiry, but now, he couldn’t help but crave more from Rose. Perhaps she would feel comfortable telling Mitaka things she could never feel comfortable telling him. The drill quieted, leaving nothing for Hux but the sound of his own breathing. 

“I think he can be ruthless. Could be. But he hasn’t been with me. He’s been…” 

Hux had never before wanted, so badly, for someone to finish a sentence. But it wasn’t to be. Instead, Rose went back to her drilling. 

“I really shouldn’t be talking about this with you. I don’t think he’d be comfortable with me spilling my guts about his personal life.” 

“Of course,” Mitaka said, at once gratifying Hux and disappointing him all at once. Gratifying because he wasn’t  _ too _ keen to peer into his superior’s secrets, and disappointed because Hux wanted him to do just that, if only so  _ he _ could hear what Rose had to say, too. “My apologies.” 

  
“But if you’re...If you’re worried about me, then I don’t think you should be. I’m not scared.” 

To Hux’s great surprise, it wasn’t bravado in her voice. But tenderness. At least, what he thought tenderness might have sounded like. He’d never heard someone speak of him with such an emotion. Mitaka balked too. 

“Truly?”

“No. Not when he’s around.” 

As much as Hux wanted to stand there forever, he could hear the steps of oncoming troops making their way to their next shift. He needed to get out of this conspicuous position. Pushing away from his spot on the wall, he moved to enter the engineering cage that had, apparently, been requisitioned for Rose’s use.

Once inside, he couldn’t help but drink in the sight of her and of the way she’d immediately adopted the space as her own. Gone were the weapons and missile bits that had previously occupied this space. All of them had been retired to a junk bin at the long end of her workstation. Instead, she’d hoisted up a droid and carefully taken it apart, using the equipment to piece the poor creature back together, little by little. 

She looked very cute in her mechanic’s goggles. Hux cleared his throat to take his mind off of that particular factor. 

“Mitaka. I see that you’ve gotten Miss Tico all settled.” 

“Yes, I had planned to put her in the South Wing, but she insisted on being put here.” 

That was a dare, a prompt for Hux to ask why Rose had requested to be put in the workshop directly next to his own, but before he could follow-up on it, Rose spoke, barely audible, as she continued to stare down at the delicate machinery with which she worked. 

“She is also right here,” she muttered. “Listening to both of you talk.” 

That’s when she glanced up at Hux, meeting his gaze through her goggles. Her cheeks were flushed with the excitement of her work; her eyes sparkled. After everything else that he’d been through today, that one look managed to somehow both make everything better...and worse. 

“MIss Tico. You’re looking…very well. I trust everything is to your satisfaction?”

_ Satisfaction _ . It had been a simple word before he’d met her. Now, it dripped with all sorts of connotations he didn’t mean. 

“I’ve never had this many new parts before. I miss a little bit of rust under my fingernails, but yeah. It’s to my satisfaction.” 

“Very well, then. Mitaka and I must return to The Bridge for our shift. Is there anything else you require? Or desire?”

Internally, he winced the moment that secondary question passed over his lips.  _ Desire _ ? What the Hell was he thinking, using words like that? He set his jaw, determined to say nothing further. 

  
“No, I’m all green here,” she said, using the engineering slang for  _ everything’s alright _ that had been banned in The First Order. Her gloved hand reached up to lower her goggles back down over her eyes, but she paused before doing so. “Should I...Should I join you for dinner?”

“If you’d like. I shall collect you at 2100 hours.”

It was all he could allow himself to say. All he could manage. If he allowed himself even another breath in her presence, he would surely do something unacceptable, like crossing over the table and kissing her, or telling her about his latest directive from The Supreme Leader. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the room, confident that Mitaka would follow him. He did, and the two set out for The Bridge. 

For a while, they walked in silence. Hux preferred this. At the moment, he was too preoccupied to discuss anything with Mitaka. He found himself at a crossroads. One direction led to Rose Tico. The other led to this new Death Star that the Supreme Leader required. Eventually, though, the silence broke. 

“Do I have permission to speak freely, General?” Mitaka asked, a half step behind him. 

“As freely as you think is appropriate,” Hux replied, his voice a low warning.  _ Don’t say anything stupid, Mitaka. I’m not in the mood.  _

“She cares for you. Or she’s beginning to, at least.” 

Hux’s scowl deepened. No, what he was facing was not a choice between Rose Tico and another Death Star. It was a choice between countless people and another Death Star. It just so happened that if he went forward with this plan from Snoke, Rose would certainly never care for him again. 

“...I thought that intel would have pleased you,” Mitaka mumbled, after a moment. 

That was the trouble. It did please him. And he knew he was a weak, pathetic man for letting it. 

“You and I have bigger concerns now than my personal life,” Hux said, leading Mitaka into a secure turbolift and entering the command codes that would bring them to The Bridge. “We are going to end the war.” 

* * *

Hours later, Hux entered his quarters to stillness. Quiet. So very different to the noise banging around the inside of his mind right now, the war waging there. Softly, he called out into the stillness. The door to his bedroom stood closed. 

“Miss Tico?”

“Almost ready,” came a muffled voice, as if Rose were speaking with something in her mouth. “I just need -” 

The door to the bedroom hissed open, apparently by accident, revealing the woman in question. Her body draped in the soft, dark grey fabric of The First Order, she held a wrench between her teeth and struggled with the Mouse Droid she’d adopted. Hux’s jaw almost dropped. 

“Are you fixing a droid in a gown?”

“His antenna bent again. Now that his rotators are working properly, he’s getting too excited and keeps running into things.” When finally, she finished with the droid, she stood to her full height and let the creature roll free again. Millicent joined its quest beneath their bed. Rose tossed her wrench into the small tool kit at her feet, then approached him, holding out her hands innocently. Almost smiling. “Don’t worry. I was careful. See? Not even a splotch of grease on me.” 

That wasn’t quite true. There was a splotch of grease streaked across her left cheek. His fingers itched to brush it away. He swallowed, hard. 

When had she invaded him like this? How could he have allowed it? Why did he want to tell her everything, to ask her what he should do? 

Were the lives of an entire planet worth the safety of the galaxy? Could he trade all of those people to sit upon the Supreme Leader’s throne some day? Would she still be standing here with him if she knew he was even considering it? 

He opened his mouth, the words coming out softer than he wanted. “May I-”

“May you what?” Rose asked, slipping a simple, curved necklace around her neck beneath the high collar of her dress. She checked herself in the Reflector. “I didn’t think you were in the habit of asking anyone for anything.”

“May I ask you a personal question?” 

“Shoot.” 

It would have been easy to move behind her and examine her reflection. To search her face for any sign of hidden thought or emotion. But that would have betrayed him, too. Instead, he paced.

“I am your enemy. The First Order destroyed your planet, separated you from your sister, and your people fell through the cracks in the system so thoroughly that you had to find shelter in a bordello. You should hate me, yet here you are. Sometimes, I wonder…” It took a long moment before he could brave the ending of that sentence. “I think perhaps that you might even, occasionally,  _ want _ to be here. How can both things be true? How can you hate me, yet be here, with me? How do you justify such extremes in your own heart?”

How could he justify the extremes in his own heart? His desire to save the galaxy with his desire to avoid killing millions? His desire to be the new Supreme Leader with his desire to be a man Rose Tico might find worthy? He wanted to save the galaxy. The Supreme Leader assured him that this would be the way to do it. But he didn’t know if he was strong enough to go through with it. 

He’d murdered his own father in cold blood. For no reason other than to usurp him and see him blotted out from the universe. Yet, here he was, weak at the thought of killing a few million people in exchange for saving the soul of the entire galaxy. 

Hux’s hands began to shake. 

“Where is this coming from?” Rose asked. 

Hux considered lying. But he couldn’t. “The Supreme Leader has entrusted me with an important mission. One I do not know if I have the strength to see through.” 

Rose turned away from the Reflector. “This is a big galaxy, Armitage. And you are the only person in it who offered to help me.”

“But I wanted something in return.” 

“Yeah, but I still have hope.” 

“Hope in what?”

Slowly, she crossed the room, closing the gap between them. 

“Hope that one day, things will be different. That I’ll see my sister again. That I’ll walk on the flats of my homeworld again. That you won’t always want something from me. That you won’t always be…” She brushed a finger against his collar, indicating his uniform. “This.” 

_ Hope. _ What a strange, foreign concept. Yet, one that proved so very tempting. She was close to him now, so close that he could no longer resist. 

“You have something on your cheek. May I?”

“Sure.”

Carefully, he raised his gloved hand to brush away the smudge. But when it was gone, he didn’t move away. Instead, he held her. 

“I admire you, you know.” 

“Really?”

“There are not many in this Galaxy who believe that things can change. That things will ever be better. You have not allowed anyone to steal that from you.” 

Her eyes were skeptical, curious. “What about you, Armitage? Do you think things will ever be better?”

_ Armitage _ . He knew it had been wrong, weakness, to ask her to use his first name in private. That wrongness didn’t stop him from relishing the sound as it passed between her lips. 

“Only if we have the power and the will to change them, Miss Tico,” Armitage said, allowing himself just the briefest moment of looking into her eyes before turning to face the window overlooking the stars. She was right. Things could get better. But he would have to be the one to make them so. If he wanted to save the Galaxy....if he wanted to end the war...then he couldn’t be afraid of what he had to do. He couldn’t be the coward his father always expected him to be. No matter what it cost him. “There is one more thing I’d like to ask you.” 

“Yes?”

_ May I kiss you _ ?  _ Or am I a fool for even wanting to, as foolish for believing that you could ever want to kiss me as you are for thinking I could change _ ? 

“There is an event that I must attend on Naboo. The Supreme Leader himself has requested that I take a more active role in official affairs. Would you accompany me? It will be an interminably dull affair. Drinks and dancing and talking to people I don’t much care for. But I could survive it if you were by my side.” 

He stared out of the viewport, overlooking the great expanse of stars beyond, and tried not to glance at her reflection in the glass. Was she thinking of that stubborn hope of hers now, thinking of this as an opportunity to change things for the better? 

Or was she, like he, slightly lifted by the thought of them dancing together? 

“I hear there’s an incredible Museum of Invention on Naboo,” Rose said, after a long silence. Her voice teased at the edges. 

Yes, Hux knew of that. He could only imagine how she would find it, taking in all of the fantastic works with the awe she usually reserved for engineering feats. “I should like to take you there.” 

“Then, it’s a date.” 

When he turned, then, to offer her his arm and escort her to dinner, she was smiling that secret smile of hers, and he decided to cherish it.

Soon, he would be constructing a planet-destroying weapon. Soon, he would make the decisive blow that ended the War. Soon, Rose would despise him for what a safe galaxy had cost him. But for this moment, she was smiling at him. And that was all that mattered. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this firmly establishes the story timeline (pre-TFA) and also introduces more conflict for Hux...Can't wait to hear what you all think!


	7. Chapter Seven

_ Chapter Seven _

Dinner in The Officer’s Mess had actually proven to be less hostile than Rose had initially feared. Instead of the long, domineering, single table in the center of the room, where she’d be expected to laugh and smile and hold court with strangers who had destroyed her homeworld, as she’d expected, the dining room looked more like the grand salon on a pleasure cruiser. Small, circular hover-tables, waited on by protocol and servant droids, filled the dark, sleek room. 

Of course, when she entered on Hux’s arm, every eye turned in her direction. But when he lead her to the high table at the far end of the room and helped her into her seat, they slowly went back to their own business, leaving Rose and Hux very much alone with their dinner. 

For the most part, Rose actually enjoyed herself. Hux was a gentleman, asking her about her work in the engineering lab, about the droids she was fixing and what she planned to do with them. He even - gently, like an interested colleague searching for just the right solution to a problem - suggested fixes of his own, and offered to give her access to the salvage center, where she might find more parts for her work. A bloom of warmth opened up on Rose’s chest. He said it so casually, so off-handedly, that anyone else might have thought he was just being polite. But she knew better by now. A few days ago, he’d told her fixing things was a waste of her time, and told her that the First Order  _ only _ used new equipment. Now, he was helping her with her projects, giving her access to their new toys and discards alike. 

That was progress. And it made her a little light-headed. A little...did she dare to even think it...happy? 

But all of that changed when she heard it. Loud, raucous guffaws from one of the nearby tables. They were talking about Hays Minor.  _ Laughing _ about it. 

Rose’s entire body shook. Her hands clenched into fists. Her jaw tightened as hot, slick bile rose up in her throat. Shame washed over her. She’d been sitting here, amongst the very men who’d destroyed her planet, letting herself believe that she was on a real date with their leader.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw the table. She wanted to shatter their precious crystal glasses and tell them that they were all monsters. But then, a soft, gentle, gloved hand reached tentatively across the table, and came to rest upon hers. She looked up, met Hux’s gaze, and relaxed under his touch. 

There was something in his eyes. A sadness. A conflict. Something she hadn’t seen in him before. She waited for him to tell her to calm down, that she was being ridiculous, that she was embarrassing him with her tight shoulders and pinched expression and heavy breathing. 

But the rebuke never came. Instead, he tipped his head towards hers, lowered her voice, and said, “I understand.” 

In that one moment and gesture, Rose understood completely.  _ I understand you’re upset. I understand that they’re monsters. I understand your pain. I understand you. _

She didn’t know how he understood. She’d always thought of him as some spoiled kid straight from the Academy, possibly an Admiral’s son who’d been shoved up the ranks and starved of love by a father who only cared about medals and victories. But when she looked into his eyes, she knew he was telling the truth. 

One day, she promised, she would understand him, too. 

* * *

The next morning, when Rose woke, the bedroom was empty. Hux had fallen asleep beside her - careful, as usual, not to touch her - but he was nowhere to be found in their quarters. That was just as well. Her mind wouldn’t stop turning over last night’s dinner in her mind, over and over again until it made less sense than it had before. Busying herself, she set out breakfast for Millicent - who, predictably, protested when she saw Rose heading for the pneumatic doors leading out of the apartments - and dressed for the engineering deck. 

Yes, that was what she needed. Vaporators and screw-tiles and grease and the hum of electrical works. That would distract her. That would take her mind off of Armitage Hux. And how badly she wanted to know him. How badly she’d wanted him to take her in his arms and hold her last night. 

On her walk, she acquired another droid - this time, a shorted-out wiring unit with a wonky index unit - and by the time she reached her designated engineering cage, she could almost put HUx and their dinner last night out of her mind. 

Of course, that couldn’t last. 

The engineering cages were just that. Cages. The only real barrier between them were the wired walls and whatever someone chose to string up on them or hang up against them. Tall racks of drawer and shelving units. Spare parts. Propaganda posters. Which meant that now, with a full unit on deck during their shift, Rose could hear the muttered conversations of the soldiers as they went about their work. 

It also meant that she was on full display to nearly everyone around her. A vulnerable feeling that only became worse when the door to her cage slammed open, revealing a First Order ensign. Female. A streak of white hair discoloring her otherwise black plait. 

“Been awhile since we’ve had fresh meat around here.” 

“Rose Tico,” she said, not looking up from her work now. “I’m not First Order and I’m not staying.” 

“Not what I heard,” the ensign said, leaning in the doorway. Rose could feel her gaze upon her, measuring her. “Hey, you’re pretty good with that thing. Can I...Can I ask you a question?”

Carefully, the ensign closed the wire cage-door behind her, and crept across the floor to Rose’s workstation. Her stomach tightened, but now closed in with this woman, she couldn’t find an exit strategy. 

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” 

“Thanks. The name’s Barx.” Her voice was low now, so low that it was more like a frantic whisper. “Don’t tell anyone, but I, uh, didn’t exactly pass all of my engineering courses at the Academy.” 

That got Rose’s attention. Apparently,  _ she _ wasn’t the one who had to worry in this scenario. A soldier of the First Order had just admitted - to a stranger, no less - that she wasn’t qualified to be in her current position. 

“What?”

Barx shrugged, but her face tugged. Pained. “The First Order needs soldiers. They don’t really care what backwater planet they take them from or how good they are. How else would we have ended up with such a young general?” 

Rose hadn’t considered that. How  _ had _ Hux risen so high in the ranks at such a young age? But now wasn’t the time to ponder it. She had more pressing issues at the moment. 

“Why are you asking me for help? Why don’t you ask one of your colleagues?”

“Because they would all rat me out. And if anyone finds us, I figure no one’s going to hurt the General’s girl.” 

_ The General’s girl. _ Rose wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. She wasn’t sure Hux would like the sound of it, either. Not that it mattered. Barx was already onto her next topic, pulling a small arascoper out of her pocket and pressing its command switch, allowing the disk to illuminate the rough plans for a mechanical design. 

“Anyway. I just got assigned to this new task force today and they’re asking me to help design a heat exhaust unit that can bond to organic material.” 

The hairs on the back of Rose’s neck raised on end, though she couldn’t figure out why. An instinct, maybe. A warning. She scanned the illuminated plans before her, searching for answers that wouldn’t come. “Why would they want that?”

“No idea. But everything’s weird around here these days.” Barx lowered her voice again, scanning the room as though she expected spies to pop out any moment and catch her in the act of gossiping. “Two of our officers got demoted and sent off-ship this morning. The same ones who worked on that Hays Minor project.” 

Rose’s heart stopped. Then, it took off racing again. There was only one explanation. Only one reason for such an abrupt dismissal. Hux had seen her pain last night and dealt with it the only way he knew how. By punishing those responsible. He’d demoted the men who’d spoken about Hays Minor, the ones who’d laughed at the pain of her people.

Eventually, Rose resurfaced from her thoughts and tried to put on a brave face. She wasn’t going to help the First Order, not if she could help it, but she could do a little investigating. See what it was that they were trying to build here. “Well, let’s have a look at your brief and see what we can do.” 

But that wasn’t to be. Because no sooner had Rose reached for the datapad on the table than the door slammed open again. This time, revealing Armitage Hux. His eyes scanned the scene before him; fire lit behind his eyes. 

For the first time, Rose was truly afraid of him. 

“Ensign Barx,” he hissed, the muscles in his face impossibly tight. 

The ensign balked and tried to make herself as small as possible. “General.”    
  


“What are you doing here?”

“I was just -”

  
He stormed towards them now, his voice raising. “What is Miss Tico doing with those plans?” 

  
“I-”

Before Rose could protest, he ripped the datapad from her hands and pocketed the arascoper from the table. He lorded over Barx, tall and dark and so dangerous. “Get out. She is not to work on this project. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, General. My apologies.” 

In a flash, Barx was out of the door and scurrying down the corridor. Rose tried to stand up for her. 

“She was just trying to -” 

Hux tried to dismiss her as he made for the door. “I know what she was trying to do. You’ll have no part of it.” 

Rose didn’t  _ want _ any part of it. Rewiring droids so that their personality chips came back online, so that they could be more than just drones in the First Order system? That, she could do. But she had no intention of helping them with their little weapons projects. 

Still. The fact that he was so cold, so forbidding in this...that rankled her. She wanted to know why. 

“Why not?”

As usual, the things Rose most wanted to know where the very questions Hux refused to answer. 

“You have a dress fitting at 1400 hours in our quarters. I suggest that you arrive on time and don’t let yourself fall prey to any further distractions.” 

* * *

The dress fitting was not a comfortable experience. A planetside tailor - a sharp-nosed humanoid with an accent so ridiculous Rose could only assume it was fake - oversaw the proceedings as one of the ship’s droids silently took her measurements. Rose had been forced to strip down to her underclothes for the entirety of the exchange, making her physically as vulnerable as she felt. The tailor hadn’t given her any indication of what this gown would look like when it was finished, and both the Mouse droid she’d rebuilt and Millicent had fled under the bed-unit when the holographic tailor had made her first appearance, which left Rose very much alone. And with nothing to think about but Hux’s strange interference today in the Engineering deck. 

He was a never-ending mess of contradictions. One moment, gentle. The next, daring him to defy her. Guarded and open. Kind and distant. She couldn’t figure him out, could never tell where she stood with him. She wanted this to work, wanted to give him what he wanted so that, one day, she could have what he’d promised her. But how was she supposed to navigate Armitage Hux when he gave her no sense of where to go? 

She’d thought he would have been proud of her, to be taking an interest in his work. But something about seeing her there, pouring over First Order plans and schematics, had sent him into a rage the likes of which she hadn’t yet seen from him. 

Right after she muttered something about having  _ a lot of work to do _ , the tailor ended their call and dismissed the helper-droid. Rose felt a wave of goose-bumps spread across her skin. The room was too cold. Just like the man she’d tied herself to. 

She’d just reached out to collect her clothes and re-dress when the pneumatic door behind her hissed. Hux had returned home. 

“You’ve got to stop walking in on me like this,” she said, attempting to tease him. The humor didn’t quite reach her voice. 

When she spun around, he stood in the doorway, solid and steady and perfectly postured, his eyes carefully avoiding hers.    
  
“I thought you would have been finished by now. And I am not used to ringing at the door to my own quarters.” 

Rose stared at him for a long moment, clenching the clothes in her hand until her knuckles went white. Last night, she’d been able to see something in those eyes of his. Today, she saw nothing. He must have regretted letting the mask slip last night. 

“I don’t understand you.” 

“I can assure you,” he said, finally moving from the doorway and towards their shared bedroom. “There’s nothing  _ to _ understand.” 

That’s when she saw the back of his neck. Pink and splotchy and very telling indeed. “You are blushing. You brought me here to be your mistress and you won’t even look at me when I’m like this.” 

“I have come to collect a new pair of gloves. That is all.” 

Sure enough, he pulled a fresh set of leather from his wardrobe unit, retired the torn ones from his hands, and replaced them. Rose couldn’t take her eyes off of him, couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened today. About last night. About... _ everything  _ and anything that Armitage Hux had touched. Every action he took reverberated in every corner of her life, and she couldn’t survive it any longer if she didn’t know what kind of man he was. 

Hux did not offer her a goodbye or any words of parting. New gloves in place, he made his way towards the door. It was only when she thought he was about to leave that Rose found the courage to blurt out the one question, the one accusation, that was on her mind. 

  
“Why did you remove those men off of the ship? Why did you demote them?”

She didn’t need to specify which men she was talking about. They both knew. Hux did not turn when he answered her, but she could hear the wear in his voice. 

“For the same reason that I am not allowing you to work on the Starkiller project. And for the same reason that I will not look at you now.” 

“Yeah? And what is it?”

“Because you have become my weakness.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! This one is a little shorter, but I hope you all liked it. Let me know what you think!


	8. Chapter Eight

There. He’d said it. 

She was growing into a weakness. Plain. Simple. Direct. An answer to the desperate question she’d just asked him. 

It was the truth, wasn’t it?

Yes. It was. Which, of course, was the problem. Admitting a weakness, even to the weakness herself, exposed him to attack. To assault. To invisible enemies plotting against him, using that weakness against him. He knew that the walls had ears in this Star Destroyer, that they would use any weakness - real or perceived - to take him down. 

But when he’d looked into her eyes, it all came flooding back to him. The way he’d carefully pulled away whenever she tried to touch him too gently. His abrupt dismissal of those womp rats who’d cruelly ridiculed Rose’s home planet. His confession to her in the throne room. The way his heart had gone racing when he’d realized that the ensign in engineering was trying to get Rose to help with the Starkiller project, a project he knew would break her heart. 

It was foolish to have a weakness. It was more foolish, still, to deny having such a clear one as this. 

He cared for Rose Tico. And he wanted her to care for him. He knew it was foolish. Impossible. He knew it made him a pathetic, slip of a man to want her. Still, like most of his personal flaws, this couldn’t be beaten or reasoned out. It was part of him. 

She was part of him now. 

_ You have become my weakness. _ Silence answered his declaration. Deafening silence. The silence of an airlock just after the external doors opened. His heart, too, stopped for the briefest of moments, and the walls around the muscle threatened to calcify. But then, he heard something strange. 

  
Rose Tico was laughing. Not a full, belly-laugh, but a soft and gentle sound, more beautiful than any music he’d ever heard. His stomach plummeted. She was laughing at him. She thought him ridiculous, standing there, having real feelings for someone who was clearly only in this for what he could give her.  _ Stupid, Hux. You absolute fool _ .  _ You - _

“Armitage.” 

That voice. His name on her lips. It wasn’t cruel at all. It was warm. Like they were sharing some kind of inside joke. He didn’t turn around. 

  
“Armitage, look at me.”    
  
“Why?” he hissed, grateful she couldn’t see his face. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t confident in his control. He felt it slipping, quickly, through his tight grasp. “You can’t say anything I’m interested in hearing.” 

He regretted the harsh words as soon as he spoke them. They were his defense mechanism; a way of protecting a part of him he was sure was already breaking. He couldn’t bear to turn around and see her laugh in his face, couldn’t watch her lips pull into a sneer as she said something like  _ did you really think I could ever actually care about you _ ? 

“Give me a chance.”

“Fine.” 

By the time he managed it, she’d pulled a thick robe around her, which she cinched at the waist. He recognized that robe from the back of his closet, a gift from the Tarygil people, woven of their signature rough cloth and perfect for taking to their hot baths. He’d never worn it; she must have fished it out of the closet some time ago. The sleeves hung over her hands, and the tie around her waist barely kept her from drowning in the fabric. 

She looked heart-breaking. A frighteningly intense part of him wanted to reach out, pull her into his arms, and hold her there until his body ached with the effort. But the warmth in her gaze, the realness of her slight smile, the disbelief in her eyes...it was all too real. He couldn’t look away, not even for a second. 

“You know it isn’t bad to care about someone, right? It’s not a weakness to feel things for others.” 

“How would you know?”

After all, she hadn’t lived his life. Hadn’t learned firsthand, like he had, how love and care could destroy someone from the inside out. No, the First Order had ripped care right from the very core of his being. 

“Because, against all odds, I care about you, too.” 

  
“You’re just saying that to get something from me. That is the problem. You have power over me, you could do anything, manipulate me into -”

In two confident, certain steps, Rose crossed the space between them and placed her hand right over Hux’s chest. Right over the place where his heart should have been. The place where he’d been feeling ghostly pulses and twinges ever since Rose had entered his life. 

His own foolish hands wanted to reach up and press hers closer. He was standing here, at war with himself. No, he wasn’t at war with himself. He was the territory that his father, his armies, and his past were fighting with Rose Tico to win. 

His wandering hand must have, subconsciously, known who he wanted to come out of that particular fight victorious. 

“You have power over me, too. That’s how it works. I put trust in you. You put trust in me. And in the end, we both have to care about each other enough not to hurt the other person.” Her lips quirked again. Her eyebrow furrowed. “Do you...do you not know how feelings work?”

Hux’s throat tightened. He felt heat pool beneath his cheeks. “You are making fun of me.” 

“I am trying to understand you. Did you really never…” She blinked. The sincerity she displayed was worse than any blow Hux had ever received. “You never had someone love you, no matter what? Someone who would-”

He spoke once again without thinking, his mind conjuring up the one selfless act he’d ever seen in his life. Her act of kindness to save her sister. “Sell herself to a fearsome general just to find you again?”

“Right.” She shrugged and pulled her hand away. As if it were so simple. As if anyone who loved someone would do something so great for them. “Anything like that?” 

“No. I’ve never had anything of the sort.” 

“It’s a little scary, especially at first. I get that. But it’s not so bad, once you get the hang of it.” 

Then, she did something strange. Something foreign and bizarre to him. She reached out her arms and wrapped them around his torso, pulling him in for a tight, warm hug. Even through the cloth of the robe and the dense fabric of his uniform, he could feel her heat. It seeped into his skin, like a stain he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get out. 

Still, even though every instinct told him to shove her away and never touch her again, slowly, he returned the gesture. He wasn’t sure he was doing it right, this hugging thing, but damned if it didn’t make him feel tempting, forbidden things. 

This wasn’t like when he’d woke up with her in his arms. It wasn’t like the tense moment they’d shared when she was working through his wounds. This wasn’t even close to what they’d shared in the throne room. It wasn’t sex between them. It was something else. Something more dangerous and infinitely harder to control. 

Tucking her into his chest, he breathed in the scent of her, despising himself for it. For indulging in this moment with her. For wanting it to last forever. 

“You should hate me.” 

“I know.” 

“I don’t understand.” 

“I know.” 

“I don’t deserve this.” 

She held him tighter. Somehow, she managed to squeeze his heart, too. 

“I know that. But I’m still here.” 

* * *

“So. That’s the plan. That’s the intel we’ve got. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s our best chance.” 

The small band of Resistance fighters looked up into the face of Poe Dameron, who’d just completed his briefing of their latest intelligence mission. Then, all eyes went to their fearless leader, General Leia Organa. Poe hadn’t looked terribly confident in his message, and they all wanted to know what the General thought about that uncertainty. 

Poe Dameron was the biggest hotshot in the fleet. If he didn’t think this was a good idea, then it probably wasn’t. But who could blame him for his uncertainty? A top-secret summit of First Order leaders on Naboo? Whispers of a secret weapon? Targeting Armitage Hux’s girlfriend?

No, not even his girlfriend. His consort? His mistress? A person that they’d all heard rumors of, but that no one had ever actually seen? 

It was madness. Whoever took this mission was going to try and convince a woman no one was certain existed to turn Armitage Hux, one of the First Order’s most devout followers, into a traitor? 

Yeah. Sure. That would work. When Gorogs fly. 

General Organa scanned the small, assembled crew. A resolve hardened in her eyes. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was sure better than risking lives and blowing more things up. She was so tired of destruction. 

“Alright,” she said, gripping her walking stick and leveling her gaze at the group before her, a mixture of new recruits and old friends. “Who’s going to volunteer for this one?”

No one answered. Not for a long time. But then...in the back of the room...a hand went up.

“I’ll do it.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! I know that this one is a bit shorter than the rest, but we're about to enter the Naboo arc and I don't want to break that up! I hope you liked the chapter! And please go check out the amazing story fanart from Ngoc12theFangirl on twitter. It's absolutely beautiful!


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